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Journal of Bacteriology, January 2004, p . 192-199, Vol . 186,
No . 1
pH-Dependent Catabolic Protein Expression during Anaerobic Growth of
Escherichia coli K-12
Elizabeth Yohannes, D . Michael Barnhart, and Joan L . Slonczewski*
Department of Biology, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio 43022
Received 24 June 2003/ Accepted 23 September 2003
During aerobic growth of Escherichia coli, expression of catabolic
enzymes and envelope and periplasmic proteins is regulated by
pH . Additional modes of pH regulation were revealed under anaerobiosis .
E . coli K-12 strain W3110 was cultured anaerobically in broth
medium buffered at pH 5.5 or 8.5 for protein identification on
proteomic two-dimensional gels . A total of 32 proteins from anaerobic
cultures show pH-dependent expression, and only four of these
proteins (DsbA, TnaA, GatY, and HdeA) showed pH regulation in aerated
cultures . The levels of 19 proteins were elevated at the high pH;
these proteins included metabolic enzymes (DhaKLM, GapA, TnaA, HisC,
and HisD), periplasmic proteins (ProX, OppA, DegQ, MalB, and MglB),
and stress proteins (DsbA, Tig, and UspA) . High-pH induction of the
glycolytic enzymes DhaKLM and GapA suggested that there was increased
fermentation to acids, which helped neutralize alkalinity . Reporter
lac fusion constructs showed base induction of sdaA
encoding serine deaminase under anaerobiosis; in addition, the
glutamate decarboxylase genes gadA and gadB were
induced at the high pH anaerobically but not with aeration . This
result is consistent with the hypothesis that there is a connection
between the gad system and GabT metabolism of
4-aminobutanoate . On the other hand, 13 other proteins were induced
by acid; these proteins included metabolic enzymes (GatY and AckA),
periplasmic proteins (TolC, HdeA, and OmpA), and redox enzymes (GuaB,
HmpA, and Lpd) . The acid induction of NikA (nickel transporter) is of
interest because E . coli requires nickel for anaerobic
fermentation . The position of the NikA spot coincided with the
position of a small unidentified spot whose induction in aerobic
cultures was reported previously; thus, NikA appeared to be induced
slightly by acid during aeration but showed stronger induction under
anaerobic conditions . Overall, anaerobic growth revealed several more
pH-regulated proteins; in particular, anaerobiosis enabled induction
of several additional catabolic enzymes and sugar transporters at the
high pH, at which production of fermentation acids may be
advantageous for the cell .
pH response is important for growth and survival of Escherichia
coli in an environment such as the human gastrointestinal tract,
in which the pH fluctuates over the range from pH 6 to 8 (14,
18) . The role of pH in gene expression in E . coli
and related enteric bacteria has been studied extensively, but it has
been studied largely under aerobic conditions (7,
11, 59, 64,
66; for reviews see references 15
and 54) . Relatively few studies have addressed the
relationship between pH and anaerobiosis, the predominant condition
of enteric growth (2); the best-studied cases
include anaerobic acid induction of amino acid decarboxylases (1,
6, 61) and a limited two-dimensional (2-D)
gel study of protein profiles (7) . However, enteric
bacteria behave very differently under anaerobic and aerobic
conditions; for example, in microarrays more than one-third of the
genes expressed during aerobic growth are altered when E . coli
cells are shifted to anaerobic conditions (49) .
The differences between aerobic and anaerobic conditions become even
more complex during intracellular pathogenesis (1) .
Aerated E . coli cultures respond to pH changes by selective
expression of numerous stress proteins, redox modulators, and
envelope proteins (21, 59,
65) . The acid stress chaperones HdeA and HdeB enhance survival in
extreme acid conditions (5, 16) .
The membrane-bound Na+/H+ antiporter NhaA protects the
cell from excess Na+ at a high external pH (26,
43) . Genes that show pH dependence are often
coinduced by other environmental factors, such as growth phase,
carbon source, and anaerobiosis (33, 56,
57) . External acids and membrane-permeant acids, whose
uptake is amplified by the pH gradient, induce heat shock and
oxidative stress proteins, as well as the RpoS regulon (5,
7, 30, 32,
50) .
The response to pH includes modulation of catabolism, particularly
in the presence of complex carbon sources, such as the tryptone and
yeast components of Luria-Bertani medium (LB) . Tryptone consists of
primarily tryptic peptides and 7.7% (wt/wt) carbohydrates (primarily
lactose), whereas yeast extract contains peptides plus 17.5%
carbohydrates (primarily glycogen and trehalose) (68;
Difco manual, 11th ed., Difco Laboratories, Detroit, Mich.) . Peptides
from casein and yeast extract can be taken up by transporters such as
OppA and then catabolized via pathways that begin with removal of CO2
or NH3 (39) . Whether decarboxylation or
deamination occurs is influenced by pH: external acid conditions
induce decarboxylation (6, 11,
38, 53) and production of alkaline amines,
whereas external base conditions induce deamination and production
of fermentation acids (7, 15,
54, 59) . The carbohydrate in LB
is predominantly lactose from casein and glycogen and trehalose from
yeast extract . These sugars are taken up by specific transporters and
then catabolized by pathways that produce variable amounts of
fermentation acids (8, 28,
35) .
During early-log-phase growth, even well-oxygenated E . coli
cells initially produce fermentation products such as acetate and
formate, which at a low external pH can reenter the cell and reach
deleterious concentrations (29, 46,
47) . For this reason, fermentation pathways
respond to pH; for instance, ldhA is induced severalfold by
acid in order to produce lactate instead of acetate plus formate (9) .
A number of proteins induced by acetate and by short-chain fatty
acids (5, 7, 30) are also
induced by growth at low pH, and the pH gradient drives the
fermentation acids back into the cell . For example, the low-oxygen
pyruvate-formate lyase YfiD, induced by acetate or formate (7,
30), is also induced during growth on LB at low
pH, whereas several acetate-repressible proteins, such as
tryptophanase (TnaA) and high-affinity maltose binding protein
(MalE), are repressed at low pH (3, 7,
59) .
Anaerobiosis amplifies induction of several acid-regulated pathways
of catabolism, such as the cadAB, lysU, and adi
pathways (34, 48,
53, 61) . The absence of oxygen limits the
metabolic options available to cells, necessitating increased
excretion of weak-acid fermentation products that stress the cell . At
the same time, anaerobiosis makes new enzymatic pathways available,
such as the pathway for anaerobic beta-oxidation of fatty acids (10) .
Thus, one would expect anaerobiosis to favor additional pH responses
not seen during growth with oxygen .
We describe here a proteomic 2-D gel comparison of E . coli protein
profiles at low pH and at high pH for cells grown under anaerobiosis .
New patterns of gene expression were obtained that substantially
augment our picture of pH-dependent protein expression, especially
for pathways of catabolism .
Growth conditions. E . coli K-12 strain W3110 (Table
1) was grown overnight in unbuffered
potassium-modified Luria broth (LBK) (10 g of tryptone per liter, 5 g
of yeast extract per liter, 7.45 g of KCl per liter) . For aerobic
growth, cultures were diluted 500-fold in 2 ml of buffered medium
with aeration at 37°C . For anaerobic growth, each overnight culture
was diluted 500-fold in 9 ml of buffered medium and transferred to a
Pyrex screw-cap tube whose volume was exactly 9 ml to avoid an air
space . The buffers used were homopiperazine-N,N'-bis(2-ethanesulfonic
acid) (HOMOPIPES) (pKa4.55), 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic
acid (MES) (pKa 5.96), 3-(N-morpholino)propanesulfonic
acid (MOPS) (pKa 7.01), 3-[N-tris(hydroxymethyl)methyl]-3-aminopropanesulfonic
acid (TAPS) (pKa 8.11), and
3-[(1,1-dimethyl-2-hydroxyethyl)amino]-2-hydroxypropanesulfonic acid
(AMPSO) (pKa9.10) . All buffers were obtained from Research
Organics or Sigma . The pH values of media were adjusted by using KOH
to avoid extra sodium ions, which stress cells at high pH (26,
43) . For all cultures, the pH was tested after growth to
ensure that the values were maintained at ±0.1 pH unit of the
pH of the original uninoculated medium .
| TABLE 1 . E . coli K-12 strains used in this study
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For sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, in
order to maintain the pH at a high or low value, two different
strategies were employed . In one strategy (experiment A) a different
buffer was used for each pH value (100 mM MES at pH 5.5 and 100 mM
TAPS at pH 8.5) . The pH of each medium was adjusted to the
appropriate value with KOH . In the second strategy (experiment B)
both acid and alkaline media contained the same mixture of buffers
(50 mM MES and 50 mM TAPS) . The pH values of the media were adjusted
to 5.5 or 8.5 by using KOH; thus, the potassium ion concentration of
the high-pH medium was approximately 50 mM higher than the potassium
ion concentration of the low-pH medium . All cultures were grown
anaerobically in closed tubes without an air space, which were
rotated end over end at 37°C until the optical density at 600 nm (OD600)
reached 0.15 .
Gel electrophoresis. 2-D gel analyses were performed by
using a previously described procedure (59), which
is updated online (biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/labtools/2d_method.html) .
Cells from three independent cultures were harvested for each pH .
Each culture was pelleted by centrifugation at 4°C, resuspended in
unbuffered LBK, and recentrifuged . The cell pellets were then treated
with sample buffers and rehydration solution (55)
in order to extract the proteins .
The protein mixtures were first separated by isoelectric focusing
by using 18-cm polyacrylamide gel strips with an immobilized pH 4 to
7 gradient according to the protocol of the manufacturer (AP
Biotech) . For each gel, 50 µg of cell protein was loaded onto an IPG
strip . For the second dimension, an electrophoretic gel slab
containing 11.5% acrylamide was prepared as described previously (55,
59) . The gels were silver stained by a procedure
compatible with matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of
flight (MALDI-TOF) analysis, and the patterns were scanned and
digitized . Protein spots were analyzed both qualitatively and
quantitatively by using the Compugen Z3 v.3.0 software (Compugen, Tel
Aviv, Israel) .
The differential expression ratio (DE) of the spot densities for
each growth condition (pH 5.5 or pH 8.5) was computed by pairwise
comparisons of a set of three gels from pH 8.5 cultures and a set of
three gels from pH 5.5 cultures . A protein spot was considered a
candidate for significant induction if seven of nine pairwise
comparisons produced a DE greater than or equal to 2 or less than
0.5 . Proteins observed at pH 8.5 that had no matching proteins on the
pH 5.5 gels were scored as having a DE of 10 . Proteins observed at pH
5.5 that had no matching proteins on the pH 8.5 gels were scored as
having a DE of 0.1 . For each protein, the log10 of all
nine DE values was computed, and the mean log10 DE (LDE)
was considered a measure of induction (positive values) or repression
(negative values) (Table 2) .
| TABLE 2 . Proteins showing differential expression as a function of pH
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Identification of proteins. Proteins having a significant LDE
were identified either by MALDI-TOF analysis at the Proteomic Mass
Spectrometry Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts (http://www.umassmed.edu/proteomic)
or by positional comparison with previous gels in which proteins
had been identified by MALDI-TOF analysis or N-terminal sequencing
(30, 59) . The differentially
expressed proteins were further identified by using a Kratos Axima
CFR MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer . The mass spectrometer data were
obtained by using tryptic peptide mixtures, as well as postsource
decay analysis of individual peptides . For database searches of
MALDI-TOF masses the Protein Prospector site was used
(prospector.ucsf.edu) .
Strain construction. To construct the sdaA::lacZ
strain JLS0711, a sequence containing the putative sdaA
promoter (positions -154 to 55 from the AUG start site) was PCR
amplified from E . coli W3110 genomic DNA by using the
following corresponding primers: right primer 5'-
CGCGAATTCACTTGAGACAATCATCGCAATA-3' and left primer
5'-CGCGGATCCTATGGGAAGATGAGGGACCA-3' . The product was digested with
EcoRI and BamHI and inserted upstream of the
ß-galactosidase gene in the plasmid vector pRS415, generating a
transcriptional fusion (52) . The plasmid
constructs were transformed into E . coli strain MC4100, and
sdaA::lac clones were selected by growth on ampicillin and X-Gal
(5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-ß-D-galactopyranoside) .
The sdaA::lac fusion was then recombined into the genome by
using a
RS45
phage and lysate selection process as described by Hand and Silhavy (22) .
Genomic recombination of the sdaA::lac fusion was
confirmed by sequencing across the fusion joint (Ohio State
Plant-Microbe Genomic Facility) .
ß-Galactosidase assays. For assays of promoter-lac
fusion expression, strains were grown either anaerobically or
aerobically in LBK buffered at different pHs ranging from 5.5 to 9.0 .
The buffers used were HOMOPIPES at pH 5.0, MES at pH 6.0, MOPS at pH
7.0, TAPS at pH 8.0, and AMPSO at pH 8.7 to 9.0 . Cultures were grown
aerobically or anaerobically, as described above .
ß-Galactosidase activities were determined for E . coli
strains carrying sdaA::lacZ, gadA::lacZ, and gadB::lacZ
(Table 1) by using the microtiter plate method described
previously (40, 51,
59) .
For proteomic 2-D gels, E . coli K-12 strain W3110 was grown
anaerobically in LBK buffered at pH 5.5 or 8.5 . The log-phase
doubling times were observed to be 31 min (pH 5.5) and 34 min (pH
8.5) . At more extreme pH values, such as those tested previously with
aerated cultures (59), the growth rate was low and varied
greatly . Because pH stress caused growth problems for anaerobic
cultures, we focused on comparing protein profiles of acid and base
cultures instead of testing across the pH range . Protein profiles
were obtained for cultures grown at neutral pH, but they did not
reveal any additional pH-dependent expression (data not shown) .
It was important to assess the effects of buffers and counterion
concentrations under anaerobic growth conditions, as shown previously
for aerobic cultures (59) . Two alternative buffer strategies
were used . In experiment A, the media contained different buffers
at each pH in order to minimize the difference in the K+
concentrations, and in experiment B, the media included the same
buffers at each pH . The composite protein profiles are shown in Fig.
1, and the results of a quantitative analysis of
pairwise comparisons are shown in Table 2 . The
overall patterns of differentially expressed proteins in experiments
A and B were largely the same . Six proteins had significant LDE
values in experiment A but not in experiment B (Tig, MglB, GapA,
GatY, Tsf, and HdeA), whereas two proteins had significant LDE values
in experiment B but not in experiment A (MalB and AccB) . These
differences could reflect buffer effects, but they could also reflect
differences in the quality of the spot patterns of the two different
gel runs .
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FIG . 1 . pH-dependent protein profiles after anaerobic growth . The
horizontal axis represents the approximate pH range of the isoelectric
focusing first dimension, and the vertical axis represents the molecular
weight (Mw) . In the layered view shown two composite images, one
representing growth at pH 8.5 (pink) and one representing growth at pH
5.5 (green), are superimposed . Each composite image is based on three
2-D gels from independent replicate cultures . All cultures of E . coli
W3110 were grown at 37°C to an OD600 of 0.15 in LBK with
buffer of the appropriate pH at a concentration of 100 mM as described
in Materials and Methods . (A) Cultures grown in LBK buffered with 100 mM
MES (pH 5.5) or 100 mM TAPS (pH 8.5) . (B) Cultures grown in LBK buffered
with a mixture of 50 mM MES and 50 mM TAPS for both pH 5.5 and pH 8.5.
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At the high pH, 19 proteins showed elevated expression, but only 2 of
these proteins, TnaA and DsbA, are induced at high pH aerobically (7,
59) . The proteins that showed elevated expression
at the high pH under anaerobic conditions included catabolic enzymes
(DhaKLM, GapA, HisC, and TnaA) and periplasmic proteins providing
substrates for catabolism (ProX, OppA, DegQ, MalB, and MglB), as well
as stress proteins (DsbA, Tig, and UspA) . On the other hand, the low
pH favored expression of 13 proteins, but only 2 of these 13
proteins, GatY and HdeA, are known to be acid induced aerobically (7,
59) . One protein, NikA, corresponded to a spot
which was reported previously to be acid induced aerobically but
whose concentration too low for MALDI-TOF identification (59) .
The acid-induced proteins observed under anaerobiosis included
catabolic enzymes (GatY and AckA), periplasmic proteins (TolC, HdeA,
and OmpA), and redox proteins (GuaB, HmpA, and Lpd) .
Strain construction. Our growing picture of pH-regulated
catabolism predicts that pH regulates expression of additional
pathways of amino acid catabolism . For example, one of the most
strongly base-induced proteins in E . coli is TnaA (7,
59), which deaminates tryptophan, cysteine, and
serine (58, 60) . Therefore, we predicted
that other enzymes that degrade cysteine or serine, such as the
degradative serine deaminase encoded by sdaA (62),
would also show base induction . A lac reporter fusion to
sdaA was constructed as described in Materials and Methods . PCR
sequence analysis of the fusion strain showed that the sdaA
promoter, located at positions -154 to 55 in the E . coli K-12
genome, was inserted 17 bp from the start of the EcoRI
restriction site and 260 bp from the lacZ sequence in the
pRS415 vector . The fusion was then moved into the MC4100 genome
(strain JLS0711) .
The degradative glutamate decarboxylases, GadA and GadB, have been
extensively studied to determine their role in acid resistance, and
expression of these proteins is induced by acid compared with
expression in cultures grown at pH 7 (11, 12,
65) . Nevertheless, expression of the GadA protein
is also elevated at pH 9 under anaerobiosis (7) . To
investigate gad expression at the transcriptional level,
gadA::lac and gadB::lac constructs were obtained (11),
and the fusion loci were transduced by phage P1 into MC4100 .
Expression of sdaA, gadA, and gadB. The
gene fusions sdaA::lac, gadA::lac, and gadB::lac
were tested for expression as a function of pH by using cultures
grown with and without aeration . All of the fusions were induced at
high pH under anaerobiosis, and induction was enhanced at a higher
cell density (Fig . 2) . Growth curves indicated that the
data for the cultures assayed were obtained during early- or
mid-log-phase growth (Fig . 3); growth of cultures
at the low and high pHs stopped at a lower cell density than growth
of cultures at pH 7 . The curves shown in Fig . 3 are
for strain JLS 0711; other strains assayed produced similar results
(data not shown) .
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FIG . 2 . pH-dependent expression of lacZ gene fusions .
ß-Galactosidase activity is expressed in specific activity units (51) .
Cultures were grown in buffered LBK to different OD600
values, and ß-galactosidase activity was assayed as described in
Materials and Methods . (A) JLS0711 (sdaA::lac); (B)
JLS0215 (gadA::lac); (C) JLS0214 (gadB::lac) .
The data are means ± standard errors for four independently grown
cultures.
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FIG . 3 . Growth curves for lacZ gene fusions . Growth curves are
shown for strain JLS0711, assayed as described in the legend to Fig.
2.
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The enhancement of high-pH induction at a higher cell density
parallels previous reports of cell density enhancement of expression
of tnaA, cysK, and gabT (59) . The
sdaA::lac construct also exhibited slight induction by
base with aeration . The gadA::lac and gadB::lac
constructs, however, showed high-pH induction only during anaerobic
growth at the mid- to late stationary phase .
Our 2-D gel analysis of anaerobic protein profiles revealed a
substantial number of pH-dependent proteins that were not observed
with aeration . Most of these proteins were catabolic enzymes or
catabolite transporters . These new observations may have several
explanations . (i) In the absence of oxygen, catabolism generates
greater quantities of organic products whose buildup threatens the
cell, especially permeant acids at low pH; therefore, greater
regulation of catabolism is needed . (ii) Some proteins that show pH
regulation with or without oxygen may fail to show up under aeration
conditions if their overall expression level is repressed by oxygen;
an example is NikA, whose high-pH induction is barely detectable when
aeration is used (59) but appeared more strongly
in an anaerobic culture . (iii) During anaerobic growth, a number of
proteins expressed at high levels when aeration is used may be
repressed; the repression of these proteins may reveal the presence
of protein spots previously undetected in the gels prepared from
aerated cultures .
High-pH-induced proteins during anaerobic growth. The
high-pH induction of several more catabolic enzymes fits into our
growing picture of pH-regulated catabolism during growth in complex
medium under conditions that may resemble the growth conditions in
the intestine (Fig . 4) . Our general model is that
low pH favors production of alkaline amines that counteract
acidification plus CO2, an acid that readily diffuses and is
removed rapidly by the host circulation, whereas high pH favors
production of fermentation acids plus NH3, which diffuses and
is removed . This model is consistent with acidic induction of
amino acid decarboxylases and alkaline induction of deaminases and
sugar breakdown .
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FIG . 4 . Summary of pH-dependent pathways of amino acid and carbohydrate
catabolism . High pH favors catabolic pathways that generate NH3
and fermentation acids, whereas low pH favors pathways that generate CO2
and amines . Anaerobiosis was required for high-pH induction of certain
pathways (designations enclosed in boxes) . Abbreviations: DHA,
dihydroxyacetone; DHAP, dihydroxyacetone phosphate; GAP, glyceraldehyde
phosphate; 3PGP, 3-phosphoglycerate.
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We show here that high pH induced the three major components of the
dihydroxyacetone (Dha) kinase system (DhaK, DhaL, and DhaM) (20,
44) . The Dha kinase system transfers phosphate from
the phosphotransferase system to DhaM and then through Dha kinase
(DhaLM) to Dha, a catabolic product of sugars and amino acids .
The phosphorylated Dha is then converted to glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate
by GapA, which is also induced at high pH; from there, breakdown
leads to fermentation products . Unlike other phosphotransferase
systems, Dha kinase acts entirely within the cytoplasm, without
involving vectorial transport; thus, the catabolite and its acidic
fermentation products are maintained in the cytoplasm .
Besides enzymes, two sugar transporters were induced at high pH,
the maltose oligosaccharide porin MalB (4, 17,
36) and the galactose binding protein MglB (25) .
These transporters should be useful for uptake of the hydrolyzed
glycogen and lactose in LBK . In general, glycolysis and fermentation
of available sugars should proceed more rapidly at high pH, at which
the fermentation acids either buffer the internal pH or exit the
cell down the pH gradient . Interestingly, several sugar porins,
including MalB and OmpF, exhibit channel closure at pH values below
5, at which even low concentrations of fermentation acids can
endanger the cell (4, 42) .
Amino acid catabolism at high pH favors deaminases, such as TnaA (7) .
The high-pH induction of TnaA, which deaminates Trp, Cys, and Ser,
led us to test the pH dependence of expression of serine deaminase .
The SdaA protein did not show up on our 2-D gels, which separated
only a subset of E . coli proteins . Nevertheless, an sdaA::lac
fusion showed strong induction at high pH . The high-pH induction
required anaerobiosis, which is consistent with our prediction that
anaerobic conditions turn on modes of pH regulation of catabolism
that are not seen under aerobic conditions . Serine deamination may
also play a role in the stationary phase, when the pH of LB rises
above pH 9 (53), since mutants with increased
stationary-phase survival show enhanced catabolism of serine (69) .
The gadA and gadB reporters showed increased expression as the
pH increased across the pH range (Fig . 2) . The high-pH
induction of gadA::lac and gadB::lac
required a high cell density and anaerobiosis . These results
confirmed the previous report of elevated GadA levels at pH 9 (7) .
In other studies, expression of gadA and gadB may have
been induced by acid in the early stationary phase (12),
although a gadX mutant actually showed acid repression of
gadA and gadB (37) . The high-pH induction
of gad is interesting in view of the role of this gene in
resistance to acid (11, 12,
38, 63, 65) . However,
gadC mutants show defective acid resistance only when they are
grown at pH values above 7; thus, the role of gad in acid
resistance appears to be especially important for cultures grown at
high pH before exposure to extreme acid conditions (24) .
The complexity of the gad response may be related to the fact
that unlike the other acid-induced decarboxylases (CadA, Adi,
and SpeF), which generate amines, GadA and GadB generate an amino
acid, 4-aminobutanoate (GABA), which can be directed into alternative
pathways (Fig . 4) . At high pH, GABA is directed
into production of succinate by GabT (59) . Succinate is a
nonpermeant acid that could neutralize internal alkalinization or be
converted to other fermentation acids .
Also induced at high pH were the histidine biosynthesis components
HisC and HisD . HisC catalyzes amino transfer from L-histidinol-phosphate
to 2-oxoglutarate, forming glutamate (19,
23) . The role of HisC during high-pH induction may
be related to its interaction with the pH-dependent GABA-glutamate
system .
The DegQ periplasmic endoprotease (31) cleaves misfolded
proteins by recognizing specific peptide folds usually buried within
the three-dimensional protein structure . Other protein-folding
agents induced at high pH include UspA and Tig . Both base stress and
acid stress cause problems with protein folding, which are addressed
by different chaperones and proteases; at low pH, HdeA was induced,
as observed previously in aerobic cultures (59) .
Low-pH-induced proteins during anaerobic growth. Fewer
catabolic proteins were induced under acidic conditions than at high
pH . Several proteins induced by acid under anaerobiosis are known to
be induced by acetate (GatY, Lpd, HdeA, and Ppa), whereas proteins
which we found to be induced at high pH anaerobically are repressed
by acetate (MglB and TnaA) (30) . These results are
consistent with the prediction that low pH amplifies the response to
reuptake of membrane-permeant fermentation acids .
The increase in the level of the nickel transporter NikA in acid
conditions may be related to the requirement for nickel for
hydrogenase activity during anaerobic fermentation (13,
67) . Another metal that may influence acid-dependent
protein expression is zinc . Several of the acid-induced proteins
(AckA, LpD, Ppa, and TsF) are known to have higher affinity for
zinc(II) (27) . The structural and functional roles
of zinc in these zinc binding proteins are poorly understood .
The flavohemoglobin Hmp is also known to be induced by various
oxidative signals, including oxygen, NO and nitrate, and iron
depletion (41, 45) . Hmp may provide
protection against NO and other reactive nitrogen species .
Previously, the hmp gene was reported to be negative for
pH-dependent expression (45), but only aerobic
growth was tested . Other antioxidant species induced in acid include
AhpC and SodB (7, 59) .
Overall, we observed several new effects of pH on catabolic
pathways and other proteins in E . coli under anaerobiosis . These
effects are largely consistent with our model that E . coli
regulates catabolism so as to counteract environmental acidity or
alkalinity and that anaerobiosis increases the need for pH regulation
of catabolism .
This work was supported by grant MCB-0234732 from the National
Science Foundation .
We thank J . W . Foster and R . Simons for the generous gift of
strains and R . Dawson for valuable discussions .
* Corresponding author . Mailing address: Department of Biology,
Higley Hall, Kenyon College, 202 North College Road, Gambier, OH 43022 . Phone:
(740) 427-5397 . Fax: (740) 427-5741 . E-mail: slonczewski@kenyon.edu.
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