Three transcription regulators of the Nss family mediate the adaptive response induced by nitrate, nitric oxide or nitrous oxide in Wolinella succinogenes.

Sensing potential nitrogen-containing respiratory substrates such as nitrate, nitrite, hydroxylamine, nitric oxide (NO) or nitrous oxide (N2 O) in the environment and subsequent upregulation of corresponding catabolic enzymes is essential for many microbial cells. The molecular mechanisms of such adaptive responses are, however, highly diverse in different species. Here, induction of periplasmic nitrate reductase (Nap), cytochrome c nitrite reductase (Nrf) and cytochrome c N2 O reductase (cNos) was investigated in cells of the Epsilonproteobacterium Wolinella succinogenes grown either by fumarate, nitrate or N2 O respiration. Furthermore, fumarate respiration in the presence of various nitrogen compounds or NO-releasing chemicals was examined. Upregulation of each of the Nap, Nrf and cNos enzyme systems was found in response to the presence of nitrate, NO-releasers or N2 O, and the cells were shown to employ three transcription regulators of the Crp-Fnr superfamily (homologues of Campylobacter jejuni NssR), designated NssA, NssB and NssC, to mediate the upregulation of Nap, Nrf and cNos. Analysis of single nss mutants revealed that NssA controls production of the Nap and Nrf systems in fumarate-grown cells, while NssB was required to induce the Nap, Nrf and cNos systems specifically in response to NO-generators. NssC was indispensable for cNos production under any tested condition. The data indicate dedicated signal transduction routes responsive to nitrate, NO and N2 O and imply the presence of an N2 O-sensing mechanism.

Laue crystal structure of Shewanella oneidensis cytochrome c nitrite reductase from a high-yield expression system.

The high-yield expression and purification of Shewanella oneidensis cytochrome c nitrite reductase (ccNiR) and its characterization by a variety of methods, notably Laue crystallography, are reported. A key component of the expression system is an artificial ccNiR gene in which the N-terminal signal peptide from the highly expressed S. oneidensis protein "small tetraheme c" replaces the wild-type signal peptide. This gene, inserted into the plasmid pHSG298 and expressed in S. oneidensis TSP-1 strain, generated approximately 20 mg crude ccNiR per liter of culture, compared with 0.5-1 mg/L for untransformed cells. Purified ccNiR has nitrite and hydroxylamine reductase activities comparable to those previously reported for Escherichia coli ccNiR, and is stable for over 2 weeks in pH 7 solution at 4 °C. UV/vis spectropotentiometric titrations and protein film voltammetry identified five independent one-electron reduction processes. Global analysis of the spectropotentiometric data also allowed determination of the extinction coefficient spectra for the five reduced ccNiR species. The characteristics of the individual extinction coefficient spectra suggest that, within each reduced species, the electrons are distributed among the various hemes, rather than being localized on specific heme centers. The purified ccNiR yielded good-quality crystals, with which the 2.59-Å-resolution structure was solved at room temperature using the Laue diffraction method. The structure is similar to that of E. coli ccNiR, except in the region where the enzyme interacts with its physiological electron donor (CymA in the case of S. oneidensis ccNiR, NrfB in the case of the E. coli protein).

Production of recombinant multiheme cytochromes c in Wolinella succinogenes.

Respiratory nitrogen cycle processes like nitrification, nitrate reduction, denitrification, nitrite ammonification, or anammox involve a variety of dissimilatory enzymes and redox-active cofactors. In this context, an intriguing protein class are cytochromes c, that is, enzymes containing one or more covalently bound heme groups that are attached to heme c binding motifs (HBMs) of apo-cytochromes. The key enzyme of the corresponding maturation process is cytochrome c heme lyase (CCHL), an enzyme that catalyzes the formation of two thioether linkages between two vinyl side chains of a heme and two cysteine residues arranged in the HBM. In recent years, many multiheme cytochromes c involved in nitrogen cycle processes, such as hydroxylamine oxidoreductase and cytochrome c nitrite reductase, have attracted particular interest. Structurally, these enzymes exhibit conserved heme packing motifs despite displaying very different enzymic properties and largely unrelated primary structures. The functional and structural characterization of cytochromes c demands their purification in sufficient amounts as well as the feasibility to generate site-directed enzyme variants. For many interesting organisms, however, such systems are not available, mainly hampered by genetic inaccessibility, slow growth rates, insufficient cell yields, and/or a low capacity of cytochrome c formation. Efficient heterologous cytochrome c overproduction systems have been established using the unrelated proteobacterial species Escherichia coli and Wolinella succinogenes. In contrast to E. coli, W. succinogenes uses the cytochrome c biogenesis system II and contains a unique set of three specific CCHL isoenzymes that belong to the unusual CcsBA-type. Here, W. succinogenes is presented as host for cytochrome c overproduction focusing on a recently established gene expression system designed for large-scale production of multiheme cytochromes c.