Regulation of Organic Hydroperoxide Stress Response by Two OhrR Homologs in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa ohrR and ospR are gene homologs encoding oxidant sensing transcription regulators. OspR is known to regulate gpx, encoding a glutathione peroxidase, while OhrR regulates the expression of ohr that encodes an organic peroxide specific peroxiredoxin. Here, we show that ospR mediated gpx expression, like ohrR and ohr, specifically responds to organic hydroperoxides as compared to hydrogen peroxide and superoxide anion. Furthermore, the regulation of these two systems is interconnected. OspR is able to functionally complement an ohrR mutant, i.e. it regulates ohr in an oxidant dependent manner. In an ohrR mutant, in which ohr is derepressed, the induction of gpx expression by organic hydroperoxide is reduced. Likewise, in an ospR mutant, where gpx expression is constitutively high, oxidant dependent induction of ohr expression is reduced. Moreover, in vitro binding assays show that OspR binds the ohr promoter, while OhrR binds the gpx promoter, albeit with lower affinity. The binding of OhrR to the gpx promoter may not be physiologically relevant; however, OspR is shown to mediate oxidant-inducible expression at both promoters. Interestingly, the mechanism of OspR-mediated, oxidant-dependent induction at the two promoters appears to be distinct. OspR required two conserved cysteines (C24 and C134) for oxidant-dependent induction of the gpx promoter, while only C24 is essential at the ohr promoter. Overall, this study illustrates possible connection between two regulatory switches in response to oxidative stress.

IscR plays a role in oxidative stress resistance and pathogenicity of a plant pathogen, Xanthomonas campestris.

Iron-sulfur ([Fe-S]) cluster is an essential cofactor of proteins involved in various physiological processes including cellular defense against oxidative stress. In Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (Xcc), IscR plays a negative role in regulation of the transcription of [Fe-S] assembly genes, iscR-sufBCDS. The expression level of sufBCDS was up-regulated in an Xcc iscR mutant. In addition, the iscR promoter activity in an Xcc iscR mutant was also higher than the wild-type strain, indicating an autoregulatory circuit. Purified IscR was shown to bind at the iscR promoter region and three putative IscR binding sites were identified. The expression of iscR-suf operon was highly induced by oxidant treatments and iron limited conditions. The iscR mutant showed increased sensitivity toward hydrogen peroxide phenotype but, surprisingly, had hyper-resistant phenotype toward plumbagin compared to the wild-type strain. Most importantly, the iscR mutant was impaired in its ability to cause lesion on leaves of a compatible host plant, Chinese radish (Raphanus sativus). These results demonstrate that a transcription regulator gene, iscR, negatively regulates genes involved in [Fe-S] biosynthesis and plays a role in oxidative stress response and pathogenesis of Xcc.