Warawan Eiamphungporn

OhrR, a transcription repressor that senses and responds to changes in organic peroxide levels in Xanthomonas campestris pv. phaseoli

We report the physiological role of OhrR as an organic peroxide sensor and transcription repressor in Xanthomonas campestris pv. phaseoli. In vivo exposure of X. campestris pv. phaseoli to either tert‐butyl or cumene hydroperoxides efficiently neutralized OhrR repression of expression from the OhrR‐regulated P1 promoter. H2O2 was a weak and non‐physiological inducer of the system while other oxidants and metabolites of organic peroxide metabolism did not induce the expression from the P1. Northern blotting results indicated a correlation between concentrations of tert‐butyl hydroperoxide used in the treatment and the induction of ohr (an OhrR‐regulated gene) expression. In addition, the levels of ohr mRNA in cultures induced by various concentrations of tert‐butyl hydroperoxide were reduced in cells with high levels of an organic peroxide metabolising enzyme (AhpC‐AhpF) but not in cells with high catalase levels suggesting that organic peroxide interacts with OhrR. DNA band shift experiments using purified OhrR and the P1 promoter fragment showed that organic peroxide treatment prevented binding of the protein to the P1 promoter by oxidation of OhrR, as the inhibition of binding to the P1 promoter was reversed by addition of a reducing agent, DTT. The highly conserved cysteine residue C22 of OhrR is required for organic peroxide inducible gene expression. A mutant protein, OhrRC22S can repress the P1 promoter activity but is insensitive to organic peroxide treatment. Thus, OhrR is the first transcription repressor characterized that appeared to evolve to physiologically sense organic peroxides.

Multiple Superoxide Dismutases in Agrobacterium tumefaciens: Functional Analysis, Gene Regulation, and Influence on Tumorigenesis

Agrobacterium tumefaciens possesses three iron-containing superoxide dismutases (FeSods) encoded by distinct genes with differential expression patterns. SodBI and SodBII are cytoplasmic isozymes, while SodBIII is a periplasmic isozyme. sodBI is expressed at a high levels throughout all growth phases. sodBII expression is highly induced upon exposure to superoxide anions in a SoxR-dependent manner. sodBIII is expressed only during stationary phase. Analysis of the physiological function of sods reveals that the inactivation of sodBI markedly reduced levels of resistance to a superoxide generator, menadione. A mutant lacking all three Sod enzymes is the most sensitive to menadione treatment, indicating that all sods contribute at various levels towards the overall menadione resistance level. Sods also have important roles in A. tumefaciens virulence toward a host plant. A sodBI but not a sodBII or sodBIII mutant showed marked reduction in its ability to induce tumors on tobacco leaf discs, while the triple sod null mutant is avirulent.

The repressor for an organic peroxide-inducible operon is uniquely regulated at multiple levels

ohrR encodes a novel organic peroxide‐inducible transcription repressor, and we have demonstrated that ohrR is regulated at the transcriptional and the post‐transcriptional levels. Primer extension results show that ohrR transcription initiates at the A residue of the ATG translation initiation codon for the ohrR coding sequence. Thus, the gene has a leaderless mRNA. The ohrR promoter (P1) has high homology to the consensus sequence for Xanthomonas promoters, which is reflected in the high in vivo promoter activity of P1. Deletion of a 139 bp fragment containing the P1 promoter showed that the sequences upstream of –35 regions were required for neither the promoter activity nor OhrR autoregulation. In vitro, purified OhrR specifically binds to the P1 promoter. DNase I footprinting of OhrR binding to the P1 revealed a 44 bp region of protection on both DNA strands. The protected regions include the –35 and –10 regions of P1. We suggest that OhrR represses gene expression by blocking RNA polymerase binding to the promoter. There are two steps in the post‐transcriptional regulation of ohrR, namely differential stability and inefficient translation of the mRNA. The bicistronic ohrR–ohr mRNA was highly labile and underwent rapid processing in vivo to give only stable monocistronic ohr mRNA and undetectable ohrR mRNA. Furthermore, the ohrR mRNA was inefficiently translated. We propose that, in uninduced cells, the concentration of OhrR is maintained at low levels by the autoregulation mechanism at the transcriptional levels and by the ohrR mRNA instability coupled with inefficient translation at the post‐transcriptional level. Upon exposure to an organic peroxide, the compound probably interacts with OhrR and prevents it from repressing the P1 promoter, thus allowing high‐level expression of the ohrR–ohr operon. The rapid processing of bicistronic mRNA gives highly stable ohr mRNA and corresponding high levels of Ohr, which remove an organic per‐oxide. Once the peroxide has been removed, the autoregulation mechanism feeds back to inhibit the expression of the operon.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens soxR Is Involved in Superoxide Stress Protection and Also Directly Regulates Superoxide-Inducible Expression of Itself and a Target Gene

Inactivation of Agrobacterium tumefaciens soxR increases sensitivity to superoxide generators. soxR expression is highly induced by superoxide stress and is autoregulated. SoxR also directly regulates the superoxide-inducible expression of atu5152. Taken together, the physiological role of soxR and the mechanism by which it regulates expression of target genes make the A. tumefaciens SoxR system different from other bacterial systems.

Oxidant-inducible resistance to hydrogen peroxide killing in Agrobacterium tumefaciens requires the global peroxide sensor-regulator OxyR and KatA

Induced adaptive and cross-protective responses to peroxide stress are important strategies used by bacteria to survive stressful environments. We have shown that exposure to low levels of peroxide (adaptive) and superoxide anions (cross-protection) induced high levels of resistance to peroxide killing in Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The mechanisms and genes involved in these processes have not been identified. Here, the roles played by peroxide (oxyR) and superoxide (soxR) global regulators and a catalase gene (katA) during these responses were investigated. H2O2-induced adaptive protection was completely abolished in both the oxyR and katA mutants. Superoxide generator (menadione)-induced cross-protection to H2O2 killing was observed in a soxR mutant, but not in either an oxyR or a katA mutant. In vivo analysis of the katA promoter, using a katA::lacZ transcriptional fusion, revealed that it could be induced by menadione in an oxyR-dependent manner. These results lead us to conclude that H2O2 and superoxide anions directly or indirectly oxidize OxyR and it is the resulting activation of katA expression that is responsible for the induced protection against lethal concentrations of H2O2.

Atypical adaptive and cross-protective responses against peroxide killing in a bacterial plant pathogen, Agrobacterium tumefaciens.

Physiological adaptive and cross-protection responses to oxidants were investigated in Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Exposure of A. tumefaciens to sublethal concentrations of H2O2 induced adaptive protection to lethal concentrations of H2O2. Similar treatments with organic peroxide and menadione did not produce adaptive protection to subsequent exposure to lethal concentrations of these oxidants. Pretreatment of A. tumefaciens with an inducing concentration of menadione conferred cross-protection against H2O2, but not to tert-butyl hydroperoxide (tBOOH), killing. The menadione induced cross-protection to H2O2 was due to the compound’s ability to highly induce the peroxide scavenging enzyme, catalase. The levels of catalase directly correlated with the bacterium’s ability to survive H2O2 treatment. Some aspects of the oxidative stress response of A. tumefaciens differ from other bacteria, and these differences may be important in plant/microbe interactions.

Novel Roles of SoxR, a Transcriptional Regulator from Xanthomonas campestris, in Sensing Redox-Cycling Drugs and Regulating a Protective Gene That Have Overall Implications for Bacterial Stress Physiology and Virulence on a Host Plant

In Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris, SoxR likely functions as a sensor of redox-cycling drugs and as a transcriptional regulator. Oxidized SoxR binds directly to its target site and activates the expression of xcc0300, a gene that has protective roles against the toxicity of redox-cycling compounds. In addition, SoxR acts as a noninducible repressor of its own expression. X. campestris pv. campestris requires SoxR both for protection against redox-cycling drugs and for full virulence on a host plant. The X. campestris model of the gene regulation and physiological roles of SoxR represents a novel variant of existing bacterial SoxR models.

Engineering of chimeric catalase-Angiopep-2 for intracellular protection of brain endothelial cells against oxidative stress.

Blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption and brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMVECs) death caused by excessive production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) have been implicated in several neurological conditions. To overcome this problem, H2O2-degrading enzyme with ability to enter the BMVECs is required. In the present study, genetic fusion of gene encoding human catalase and gene encoding Angiopep-2 (AP2), a brain targeting peptide, was performed. The fusion protein was successfully expressed in Escherichia coli and purified to homogeneity. The protein retained heme content and specific enzymatic activity in the same order of magnitude as that of native enzyme. Study of the BMVECs internalization showed that 0.1μM of the fusion protein can enter the cell within 15min, while internalization of the native protein was not observed at this condition. In addition, treatment of the BMVECs with 20 units of the fusion protein for 30min showed protection against H2O2 up to 5.0mM, whereas this protective effect was not observed from treatment with the native protein. Therefore, construction of chimeric human catalase and AP2 provides an insight into the development of potential therapeutic antioxidant with ability to penetrate the BBB for protection against neurodegenerative disorders.

Improving enzymatic activities and thermostability of a tri-functional enzyme with SOD, catalase and cell-permeable activities

Synergistic action of major antioxidant enzymes, e.g., superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) is known to be more effective than the action of any single enzyme. Recently, we have engineered a tri-functional enzyme, 6His-MnSOD-TAT/CAT-MnSOD (M-TAT/CM), with SOD, CAT and cell-permeable activities. The protein actively internalized into the cells and showed superior protection against oxidative stress-induced cell death over native enzymes fused with TAT. To improve its molecular size, enzymatic activity and stability, in this study, MnSOD portions of the engineered protein were replaced by CuZnSOD, which is the smallest and the most heat resistant SOD isoform. The newly engineered protein, CAT-CuZnSOD/6His-CuZnSOD-TAT (CS/S-TAT), had a 42% reduction in molecular size and an increase in SOD and CAT activities by 22% and 99%, respectively. After incubation at 70°C for 10min, the CS/S-TAT retained residual SOD activity up to 54% while SOD activity of the M-TAT/CM was completely abolished. Moreover, the protein exhibited a 5-fold improvement in half-life at 70°C. Thus, this work provides insights into the design and synthesis of a smaller but much more stable multifunctional antioxidant enzyme with ability to enter mammalian cells for further application as protective/therapeutic agent against oxidative stress-related conditions.

Enhancement of Solubility and Specific Activity of a Cu/Zn Superoxide Dismutase by Co-expression with a Copper Chaperone in Escherichia coli

Background Human Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (hSOD1) is an antioxidant enzyme with potential as a therapeutic agent. However, heterologous expression of hSOD1 has remained an issue due to Cu2+ insufficiency at protein active site, leading to low solubility and enzymatic activity. Objectives The effect of co-expressed human copper chaperone (hCCS) to enhance the solubility and enzymatic activity of hSOD1 in E. coli was investigated in the presence and absence of Cu2+. Materials and Methods pETDuet-1-hSOD1 and pETDuet-1-hCCS-hSOD1 were constructed and individually transformed into E. coli strain BL21(DE3). The recombinant hSOD1 was expressed and purified using immobilized metal affinity chromatography. The yield and specific activity of hSOD1 in all conditions were studied. Results Co-expression with hCCS increased hSOD1 solubility at 37°C, but this effect was not observed at 25°C. Notably, the specific activity of hSOD1 was enhanced by 1.5 fold and greater than 3 fold when co-expressed with hCCS at 25°C with and without Cu2+ supplement, respectively. However, the chaperone co-expression did not significantly increase the yield of hSOD1 comparable to the expression of hSOD1 alone. Conclusions This study is the first report demonstrating a potential use of hCCS for heterologous production of hSOD1 with high enzymatic activity.