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Ferrous iron oxidation by sulfur-oxidizing Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and analysis of the process at the levels of transcription and protein synthesis

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Abstract

In contrast to iron-oxidizing Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, A. ferrooxidans from a stationary phase elemental sulfur-oxidizing culture exhibited a lag phase in pyrite oxidation, which is similar to its behaviour during ferrous iron oxidation. The ability of elemental sulfur-oxidizing A. ferrooxidans to immediately oxidize ferrous iron or pyrite without a lag phase was only observed in bacteria obtained from growing cultures with elemental sulfur. However, these cultures that shifted to ferrous iron oxidation showed a low rate of ferrous iron oxidation while no growth was observed. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis was used for a quantitative proteomic analysis of the adaptation process when bacteria were switched from elemental sulfur to ferrous iron. A comparison of total cell lysates revealed 39 proteins whose increase or decrease in abundance was related to this phenotypic switching. However, only a few proteins were closely related to iron and sulfur metabolism. Reverse-transcription quantitative PCR was used to further characterize the bacterial adaptation process. The expression profiles of selected genes primarily involved in the ferrous iron oxidation indicated that phenotypic switching is a complex process that includes the activation of genes encoding a membrane protein, maturation proteins, electron transport proteins and their regulators.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants 525/08/0697 from the Czech Science Foundation. The MS-based proteomic study (Z.Z. and D.P.) was supported by the project “CEITEC—Central European Institute of Technology” (CZ.1.05/1.1.00/02.0068) from the European Regional Development Fund. P.B. was partly supported by the European Regional Development Fund and the State Budget of the Czech Republic (RECAMO, CZ.1.05/2.1.00/03.0101).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlarska 2, 61137, Brno, Czech Republic

    Jiri Kucera, Pavel Bouchal, Jan Lochman, Oldrich Janiczek & Martin Mandl

  2. Core Facility-Proteomics, Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 62500, Brno, Czech Republic

    David Potesil & Zbynek Zdrahal

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  1. Jiri Kucera
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  2. Pavel Bouchal
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  3. Jan Lochman
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  4. David Potesil
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  7. Martin Mandl
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Correspondence to Martin Mandl.

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Kucera, J., Bouchal, P., Lochman, J. et al. Ferrous iron oxidation by sulfur-oxidizing Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and analysis of the process at the levels of transcription and protein synthesis. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 103, 905–919 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-012-9872-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-012-9872-2

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