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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, September 2000, p. 4119-4123, Vol. 66, No. 9
Department of Molecular Genetics,
Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Cincinnati College of
Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio 45267-05241;
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of
Colorado Health Sciences, Denver, Colorado
802622; and Department of Biochemistry,
Molecular Biology and Biophysics, University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455-03263
Received 16 March 2000/Accepted 15 June 2000
Catechol-2,3-dioxygenase (C23O) of Pseudomonas putida,
encoded by the xylE gene, was found to be sensitive to
hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) when used as a
reporter in gene fusion constructs. Exposure of Pseudomonas
aeruginosa katA or katA katB mutants harboring katA- or katB-lacZ (encoding The use of gene reporter cassettes,
including those encoding Unlike the reliable lacZ reporters, other gene fusions have
some drawbacks. For example, the use of the Vibrio harveyi
luxAB genes (encoding luciferase) in transcriptional gene fusions
was cautioned against, because it generates
O2 The product of the xylE gene of Pseudomonas
putida, C23O, is an important component in the degradation
pathways of toluene and xylenes and catalyzes the dioxygenolytic
cleavage of the aromatic ring (8, 11, 18, 25).
Interestingly, it has been observed that optimal toluene degradation
occurs under reduced oxygen tension with some C23O enzymes
(17). This suggests a sensitivity to oxygen or one of its
reduced forms, despite the fact that C23O requires oxygen for activity.
Oxygen sensitivity may be derived from the fact that each of four C23O
subunits contains an essential iron atom which must be in the Fe(II)
oxidation state for activity in extradiol-type aromatic dioxygenases
(3, 4, 25). Oxidation of this iron would inactivate the
enzyme. Indeed, early studies showed that C23O is inactivated by low
levels of the oxidizing reagent H2O2 in vitro
(25). Our later studies of other Fe(II)-containing dioxygenases showed that H2O2 treatment
resulted in enzyme inactivation and the appearance of electron
paramagnetic resonance (EPR) signals attributable to ferric ion in most
but not all cases (3, 23, 37). Several other iron-containing
enzymes including the antioxidants iron superoxide dismutase and
catalase are also sensitive to elevated levels of
H2O2 (7, 9). In this study, we
describe the sensitivity of C23O to H2O2
measured both in vivo using isogenic catalase mutants (Table
1) of the aerobic gram-negative bacterium
Pseudomonas aeruginosa and in vitro using purified enzyme.
We suggest caution in interpreting data obtained using xylE
reporter fusions under aerobic conditions.
0099-2240/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Hydrogen Peroxide Sensitivity of
Catechol-2,3-Dioxygenase: a Cautionary Note on Use of
xylE Reporter Fusions under Aerobic Conditions
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ABSTRACT
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Abstract
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-galactosidase)
or -xylE fusion plasmids to H2O2
stimulated
-galactosidase activity, while there was little or no
detectable C23O activity in these strains. More than 95% of C23O
activity was lost after a 5-min exposure to equimolar H2O2, while a 10,000-fold excess was required
for similar inhibition of
-galactosidase. Electron paramagnetic
resonance spectra of the nitrosyl complexes of C23O showed that
H2O2 nearly stoichiometrically oxidized the
essential active-site ferrous ion, thus accounting for the loss of
activity. Our results suggest using caution in interpreting data
derived from xylE reporter fusions under aerobic conditions, especially where oxidative stress is present or when catalase-deficient strains are used.
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TEXT
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Abstract
Text
References
-galactosidase (lacZ),
luciferase (luxAB), and catechol-2,3-dioxygenase (C23O)
(xylE), has been a tremendous benefit to scientists studying gene regulation. The lacZ gene is the most widely used
reporter in bacteria, while others that include luxAB,
gfp (green fluorescent protein), phoA (alkaline
phosphatase), and xylE fusions are used less often. The use
of lacZ fusions in bacteria has proven to be the best tool
with which to accurately assess promoter activity under conditions of
oxidative stress. For example, in Escherichia coli,
lacZ fusions were used to show that the transcriptional activity of oxidant-regulated genes including sodA (encoding
Mn-superoxide dismutase), katE (encoding
catalase/hydroperoxidase II), and katG (encoding
catalase/hydroperoxidase I), among others, is markedly increased upon
exposure to either O2- or
H2O2-generating agents (16, 29, 34).
(12). Fusions linked to
phoA are limited to proteins expressed in the periplasm
(21), while those linked to gfp are only
semiquantitative (24). The use of xylE fusion
constructs does not appear to have any of these disadvantages
(32).
TABLE 1.
Strains and plasmids used in this study
Sensitivity of C23O but not
-galactosidase to
H2O2 in vivo using P. aeruginosa
catalase gene lacZ and xylE fusions.
The
katA gene of P. aeruginosa encodes the major,
constitutively expressed catalase, KatA (13, 20). In
contrast, KatB activity is only detected upon exposure of bacteria to
H2O2 or the redox-cycling agent paraquat
(6). As shown in Fig. 1A, XylE
reporter activity in the katA mutant, where catalase
activity is virtually undetectable (20), was reduced 93%.
The KatA-XylE reporter activity in the katA katB double
mutant was reduced ~70%. Since H2O2 is
required to activate the katB gene (6), it is not
surprising that KatB reporter activity was very low or undetectable. In
fact, KatB-LacZ reporter activity was reduced ~5,000-fold relative to
KatA-LacZ reporter activity (Fig. 1B).
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Treatment with H2O2 stimulates catalase
gene lacZ reporter activity but inhibits xylE
reporter activity in catalase-deficient strains.
To test the
hypothesis that H2O2 increases
katA::lacZ and
katB::lacZ but not
katA::xylE or
katB::xylE activity, aerobic,
mid-logarithmic-phase organisms were exposed to a sublethal 1 mM dose
of H2O2 for 1 h, a condition which
markedly increases KatB activity and, to a far lesser extent, KatA
activity (6). Figure 2A shows
that KatA-LacZ activity was only slightly increased in wild-type
bacteria but was increased 1.4-fold following
H2O2 treatment in the katA katB
mutant. KatA-XylE activity was also increased upon exposure to
H2O2 in wild-type bacteria but was dramatically
inhibited in the control and H2O2-treated
katA katB strains (Fig. 2B). In contrast to KatA activity,
KatB activity is stimulated upon exposure to H2O2 (6). This is reflected in the
KatB-LacZ results shown in Fig. 2B. Wild-type and katA katB
mutant KatB-LacZ activity increased 10.7- and 35-fold upon exposure to
H2O2. In contrast, KatB-XylE activity in the
H2O2-treated katA katB mutant was
reduced ~15-fold and was not detectable in control bacteria.
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Sensitivity of purified C23O but not of
-galactosidase to
H2O2.
The in vivo results suggest that
H2O2 is much more damaging to C23O than to
-galactosidase. To compare the sensitivity of C23O and
-galactosidase to H2O2, aliquots of the
purified enzymes were incubated at room temperature with increasing
concentrations of H2O2. As shown in Fig.
3A, the C23O activity loss was directly correlated with the nearly stoichiometric titration of the active-site Fe(II) in the sample with H2O2. Most of the
activity was lost after a 1:2 titration, and there was no detectable
C23O activity after the enzyme was incubated with a 20-fold excess of
H2O2. In contrast, 100 mM
H2O2 (a 10,000-fold excess) was required for ~50% inhibition of
-galactosidase activity (Fig. 3B).
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EPR analysis of H2O2-treated C23O.
The
effect of H2O2 on the active-site iron of C23O
can be directly evaluated by EPR spectroscopy. Our past studies have
shown that complexing of the enzyme with NO converts an EPR-silent
metal center into an EPR-active species with two of the three
resonances symmetrically distributed around g values of 4 (3, 4). This is the characteristic spectrum of a spin (S)
3/2 species that is formed by transferring one electron from the iron
to the NO and antiferromagnetic coupling between the resulting species
(5). This species is easily distinguished from that
resulting from oxidation of the Fe(II) to Fe(III), which yields an S
5/2 EPR spectrum with g values near 4.3. As shown in Fig.
4, untreated C23O yielded an intense S
3/2 EPR spectrum from the active-site Fe(II)-NO complex. Quantitation
of the spectra showed that all of the iron in the sample formed a
complex. After a 30-min incubation with a twofold excess of
H2O2 on ice, a dramatic decrease in the S 3/2
spectrum from Fe(II)-NO occurred, accompanied by a 96% (±3%) loss of
activity and the appearance of a broad signal from Fe(III) (g = 4.3). Quantitation of the S 3/2 signal showed that
87% (±5%) of the Fe(II) was oxidized. Incubation of an identical
sample with a 200-fold excess of H2O2 resulted
in a complete loss of the S 3/2 signal and activity as well as a
further increase in the S 5/2 signal from Fe(III). These results show
directly for the first time that the origin of the loss of activity of
C23O following H2O2 treatment is oxidation of
the active-site iron in accord with previous indirect experiments
(25). Many studies have indicated that the mechanism of
extradiol dioxygenases requires Fe(II), and thus its oxidation would
inhibit the enzyme (2, 33). Because the Fe(III) EPR signal
of the inactivated C23O is very broad, it is likely either that the
iron is lost from the enzyme following oxidation or that the
environment of the iron becomes highly disordered.
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Conclusions. In this study, we demonstrate that C23O is very sensitive to approximately stoichiometric levels of H2O2 both when it is present as a gene fusion product in vivo and as the purified enzyme in vitro. Arguably, the attractiveness of the xylE reporter system in monitoring gene-promoter activity is based upon its rapid spectrophotometric assay that is zero-order with respect to its substrate catechol. However, this study raises concern over the interpretation of data obtained under highly aerobic conditions. Recently we have cloned, overexpressed, and characterized another extradiol dioxygenase similar to C23O that catalyzes the cleavage of 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl acetic acid (homoprotocatechuate) between the 2- and 3-ring carbons to yield a yellow product analogous to the product of the C23O-catalyzed reaction (23, 35). Homoprotocatechuate-2,3-dioxygenase (H23O, encoded by hpcd) is unique among Fe(II)-containing dioxygenases in that it exhibits very low sensitivity to H2O2. Moreover, a homologous H23O containing Mn(II) rather than Fe(II) has also been cloned and characterized and was also found to be insensitive to H2O2 (27, 36). Thus, gene fusions to either of these enzymes could offer an alternative to C23O when experiments require highly aerobic and/or oxidative stress conditions. Such experiments are in progress.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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This work was supported by Public Health Service grant AI-45041 and Cystic Fibrosis grant HASSET97PO to D.J.H. and NIGMS grant 24689 to J.D.L.
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FOOTNOTES |
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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, 231 Bethesda Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45267-0524. Phone: (513) 558-1154. E-mail: Daniel.Hassett{at}UC.Edu.
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