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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, May 2006, p. 3738-3742, Vol. 72, No. 5
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AEM.72.5.3738-3742.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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Xiang Xiao,2
Xi Huang,2
Delin You,1
Xiufen Zhou,1,2 and
Zixin Deng1,2*
Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism and School of Life Science and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200030, China,1 School of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China2
Received 20 November 2005/ Accepted 1 February 2006
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New arsenic resistance gene clusters other than the initial arsRDABC type continue to emerge, and varied mechanisms seem to occur in diverse biological systems. The ars operon in the skin (for sigK-intervening) element of Bacillus subtilis contains four genes in the order arsR, ORF2, arsB, and arsC. Although ORF2 homologs have not been found (17), it is known to be essential for arsenic resistance. The large extrachromosomal replicon pNRC100 in Halobacterium sp. strain NRC-1 harbors an arsADRC-R2M-type arsenic resistance gene cluster involving a putative arsenite(III)-methyltransferase (20). The circular plasmid pWCFS103 in Lactobacillus plantarum carries a uniquely organized arsRDDB-type arsenic resistance gene cluster (13) that lacks the arsenate reductase gene arsC and contains two copies of the arsD regulatory gene.
Linear plasmids have been reported to encode diverse biological functions, yet arsenic resistance systems in linear plasmids have not been studied in detail. Here, we report the analysis of an arsenic resistance (ars) gene cluster from a large linear plasmid, pHZ227, in Streptomyces sp. strain FR-008. This determinant is compared with the putative ars gene clusters from Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) (1) and Streptomyces sp. strain F2 (GenBank accession number AY943951, submitted by another group).
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-32P as a probe to hybridize against a Streptomyces sp. strain FR-008 genomic library in Escherichia coli comprising 1,920 colonies. Hybridizing cosmids (46) were obtained, and eight overlapping cosmids (pHZ1239 to pHZ1246) were aligned and mapped to form a contig. Three positive clones were also obtained for the smaller linear plasmid pHZ228 of Streptomyces sp. strain FR-008, which has not been mapped in detail. |
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exonuclease, consistent with the properties of other reported linear plasmids and chromosomes in Streptomyces (reference 12 and data not shown). The two linear plasmids of Streptomyces sp. strain FR-008 were named pHZ227 and pHZ228 (Fig. 1).
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FIG. 1. Identification of linear plasmids in Streptomyces sp. strain FR-008 by PFGE. Undigested chromosomes and plasmids (pHZ227 and pHZ228) of Streptomyces sp. strain FR-008 (lane 1) and S. griseus IMRU3570 (lane 2) and intact samples (lanes 1 and 2) digested with endonuclease VspI (lanes 3 and 4) were run in parallel with size standards (S). Xme, undigested chromosomes.
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FIG. 2. (Top) Schematic presentation of the linear plasmid pHZ227 with putative terminal proteins. (A) The arsenic resistance gene cluster (thick shaded bar) is located in the overlapping region as a PstI fragment between pHZ1239 and pHZ1240. (B) Genetic organization of the ars gene cluster, with the region indicated by open arrows replaced by the 1.4-kb acc(3)IV gene to obtain mutant WL1. (C) A series of deletion clones for the characterization of arsenite [As(III)] and arsenate [As(V)] resistance in S. griseus IMRU3570 and in S. lividans TK24 (in parentheses). +, able to confer arsenic resistance; , unable to confer arsenic resistance; w, grew weakly. (D) RT-PCR analysis of cotranscriptions of arsR1BO and arsCT, using primers schematically located above or below the putative ars gene cluster in panel B. PCR products were obtained using template RNA extracted from Streptomyces sp. strain FR-008 under uninduced (lanes 2, 5, and 8), arsenite-induced (lanes 3, 6, and 9) or arsenate-induced (lanes 4, 7, and 10) conditions. Primers RB-1 (5'-GATCGAGTCGTCCCCACCCC-3') and RB-2 (5'-CGGAGCCAAGCAG CCAACC-3') (lanes 2 to 4), BO-1 (5'-TCGGCCGGGGAGAACAGGTG-3') and BO-2 (5'-CGGTCCTGATCGGCCTGGTC-3') (lanes 5 to 7), and CT-1 (5'-CGTCTTCCCCGGCAAGCGCTA-3') and CT-2 (5'-CGAACAGCACGGGCCTCAGC-3') (lanes 8 to 10) were used as primer pairs. Results obtained using different primer pairs are separated by vertical lines.
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C31-derived integrative vector, pSET152 (11), for the construction of pJTU1910. When pJTU1910 was introduced into S. griseus strain IMRU3570, the derivative strain gained resistance to both 5 mM arsenite and 100 mM arsenate, implying that this NdeI-MluI fragment contained the complete arsenic resistance gene cluster. Evidence that the above-mentioned six ars genes were directly responsible for arsenic resistance in their native host, Streptomyces sp. strain FR-008, came from deletion of the putative ars gene cluster from pHZ227 by targeted gene replacement. The resulting mutant, WL1, displayed sensitivity to 5 mM arsenite and 100 mM arsenate comparable to that of S. griseus IMRU3570. Arsenic resistance was restored when pHZ1239 and pHZ1240 were introduced into WL1, while the control cosmids (pHZ1244 and pHZ1246) had no such effect. Thus, the arsRBOCT gene cluster lying on linear plasmid pHZ227 was demonstrated to be responsible for arsenic resistance in Streptomyces sp. strain FR-008.
To determine the functions of individual genes in the pHZ227 arsenic resistance gene cluster, a series of pSET152 derivative clones carrying different sets of the six putative ars genes were assayed for arsenic resistance in S. griseus IMRU3570 (Fig. 2). Vector pSET152 was used as a negative control throughout. Plasmids pJTU91 (lacking arsT), pJTU94 (lacking arsR2 and arsO), and pJTU92 (lacking arsR2, arsO, and arsT) conferred resistance to both arsenite and arsenate, suggesting that a PvuII fragment carrying an arsB-arsR1-arsC gene cassette (pJTU92) was sufficient for conferring resistance to As(III), as well as As(V), on S. griseus IMRU3570. Additionally, further partial removal of arsC (pJTU98 and pJTU99) abolished resistance to As(V) but not to As(III) (data not shown), while a clone (pJTU93) removing arsB but maintaining arsC and arsR1 lost resistance to As(III) and to As(V) completely in S. griseus IMRU3570 (data not shown). The most striking difference in the heterologous expression of these clones in Streptomyces lividans TK24 was that the absence of arsT (as in pJTU91 and pJTU92 [Fig. 2C]) abolished resistance to As(V).
ArsB appears to be an arsenite efflux pump protein required for resistance to both arsenite and arsenate, while ArsC is only necessary for resistance to arsenate. This is in accord with the known function of ArsC as an arsenate reductase for the reduction of As(V) to As(III), which is then effluxed by ArsB. Thioredoxin is required for arsenate reduction by ArsC of S. aureus plasmid pI258 (8), and an independent functional trxA (thioredoxin) gene in the E. coli chromosome is required for T. ferrooxidans ArsC-mediated arsenate resistance in E. coli (3). An equivalent function is likely to be mediated by arsT, a putative thioredoxin reductase gene in the pHZ227 ars gene cluster. This agrees well with the proposal that the thioredoxin reductase gene participates in the reduction of arsenate to arsenite with the reducing power from NADPH
thioredoxin reductase
thioredoxin
ArsC
arsenate (8).
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With the rapidly increasing information from genome-sequencing projects, a number of potential ars gene clusters have been annotated in chromosomes. An extensive BLAST search using the pHZ227 ars gene cluster against NCBI databases identified related putative ars gene clusters (Fig. 3). Among these, pHZ227 ars genes showed the highest similarities to putative ars genes from the S. coelicolor A3(2) genome open reading frames (ORFs). One of the two sets of putative arsenic resistance genes in S. coelicolor A3(2) (SCO6834 to SCO6838 of GenBank accession no. AL939129) (Fig. 3) is located in a tRNA region, suggesting acquisition from an exogenous genomic island (1). The other ars gene cluster (SCO3696 to SCO3701 of GenBank accession no. AL939117) contains an arsR2 homolog (ORF SCO3696) and a partial arsT (ORF SCO3701). The ars genes from pHZ227 also showed significant homology with the genes of the putative arsenic resistance gene cluster (G+C content 69.4%) from Streptomyces sp. strain F2, recently deposited in GenBank by a different Shanghai research group (Fig. 3), although the starting orf1 encoding a putative thioredoxin reductase is an incomplete gene sequence. An extra gene (orf5), whose role is unknown, was found between arsB and arsO homologs. Though the arsenic resistance genes in S. coelicolor A3(2) and Streptomyces sp. strain F2 have not been functionally analyzed, wild-type S. coelicolor A3(2) has been shown to be resistant to arsenic (7).
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FIG. 3. Genetic organizations of genes involved in arsenic resistance in Streptomyces sp. strain FR-008 (GenBank accession number DQ231520) with S. coelicolor A3(2) (GenBank accession number AL939129), Streptomyces sp. strain F2 (GenBank accession number AY943951), and Rhodococcus erythropilis BD2 (GenBank accession number AY223810). The gene numbers correspond to the numbers in the genome database. Only one of the two arsenic resistance gene clusters (SCO6834 to SCO6838, harboring full-length arsT but lacking arsR2 homology) from S. coelicolor A3(2) is shown. Homologous genes are aligned with crosshatching (arsO), vertical lines (arsB), hatching (arsT), and gray (arsC) for comparison. The numbers between the dotted lines and above R. erythropilis BD2 are the percentages of amino acid sequence identity between the related ars proteins of Streptomyces sp. strain FR-008.
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The genetic arrangement of arsO and arsT in pHZ227 implies that they are coupled with arsR1-arsB and arsC, respectively. Nonetheless, plasmids pJTU91 lacking arsT and pJTU94 lacking arsO both conferred resistance to arsenic on S. griseus IMRU3570, although the arsT function was absolutely required for arsenate resistance in S. lividans TK24 (Fig. 2C). Since the putative thioredoxin reductase activity of ArsT is known to be widely distributed in bacteria [e.g., ArsT is highly homologous to at least five putative thioredoxin reductases, ORFs CAB71847, CAB42713, CAA63076, CAA07451, and CAA63075 in GenBank accession number AL645882, in S. coelicolor A3(2)], it is possible that such activity is recruited from endogenous chromosomal ArsT homologs. This may explain why most known arsenic resistance gene clusters harboring a thioredoxin-dependent arsC do not contain an arsT (thioredoxin reductase) gene or an arsO (flavin-binding monooxygenase) homolog.
A flavin-binding monooxygenase has not previously been characterized in known arsenic resistance systems. Although no obvious similarity was found, the role of ArsO in Acr3p-type arsenite efflux systems may be similar to that of ArsH, a protein showing weak homology to oxidoreductases (3, 14), in the arsenic resistance systems of some gram-negative bacteria.
All of the ars gene clusters in Streptomyces have high G+C contents (ca. 70%), a general feature of Streptomyces genomes which nevertheless contrasts with the generally lower (< 50%) G+C contents of arsenic gene clusters found in other organisms. Moreover, the arsT gene (encoding a possible thioredoxin reductase) was found only in a relatively high-G+C-content arsenic resistance gene cluster (65%) from the linear plasmid pBD2 of gram-positive Rhodococcus erythropolis BD2. Also unusual for pHZ227 ars clusters are the hypothetical flavin-binding monooxygenase ArsO, the similarity of the arsenite transporter (ArsB) to that of the yeast Acr3p family, and the similarity of the arsenate reductase (ArsC) to bacterial ArsC. Taken together, these features may constitute an unusual entity specific to Streptomyces and other gram-positive organisms with high G+C contents.
This work received support from the Ministry of Science and Technology (2003CB114205), the National Science Foundation of China, the Ph.D. Training Fund of the Ministry of Education, and the Shanghai Municipal Council of Science and Technology.
Present address: Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Mass. ![]()
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