School of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia1
Author for correspondence: Staffan Kjelleberg. Tel: +61 2 9385 2102. Fax: +61 2 9385 1779. e-mail: s.kjelleberg{at}unsw.edu.au
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ABSTRACT |
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Keywords: fatty acid starvation, UV radiation
Abbreviations: ppGppase, ppGpp hydrolase; ribosome-associated ppGpp synthetase; ROS, reactive oxygen species
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INTRODUCTION |
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While the downstream events of the carbon starvation adaptive response are relatively well understood, little is known about how carbon starvation is sensed by a bacterium and linked to SpoT-mediated ppGpp accumulation and the consequent upregulation of RpoS (Matin, 2000 ). Studies of the cellular location of SpoT in E. coli have revealed that it is not associated with ribosomes and appears to be a cytosolic protein, which may monitor carbon source availability through a soluble signal molecule (Gentry & Cashel, 1995
). Through the use of mutants defective in the fatty acid synthesis pathway and cerulenin, a specific inhibitor of fatty acid synthesis (Omura, 1981
), it has been found that fatty acid starvation in the presence of glucose and amino acids stimulates spoT-dependent ppGpp accumulation in E. coli (Seyfzadeh et al., 1993
). The signalling pathway leading to this accumulation, and hence the inhibition of rRNA and protein synthesis, did not involve a significant decrease in the synthesis of either phospholipids or ATP. It may well be part of, or identical to, the still elusive SpoT-controlled carbon starvation response mechanism (Seyfzadeh et al., 1993
). The precursor of fatty acid synthesis, acetyl CoA, is mainly produced during glycolysis when glucose is present as the sole carbon source. Therefore, glucose deprivation in bacteria apparently causes inhibition of fatty acid synthesis, leading to fatty acid starvation (DiRusso & Nystrom, 1998
). Following this rationale, it is possible that SpoT senses a signal generated during fatty acid metabolism to monitor carbon source availability during growth and carbon starvation (DiRusso & Nystrom, 1998
). Interestingly, ppGpp has a negative feedback effect on the fatty acid synthesis pathway, by inhibiting glycerol phosphate acyltransferase (Heath et al., 1994
).
Fatty acid starvation can be mimicked through the addition of cerulenin, a polypeptide fungal mycotoxin, which binds tightly to two enzymes, 3-oxoacyl-[acyl-carrier-protein] I and II synthases (encoded by fabB and fabF, respectively). This binding prevents the catalysis of the elongation reaction, thus leading to the inhibition of both saturated and unsaturated fatty acid synthesis and hence growth arrest in bacteria (Moche et al., 1999 ). Fatty acid starvation halts synthesis of the bacterial lipid membrane, and continued growth of the bacteria results in lethal consequences. Hence, survival of fatty acid starvation depends critically on cessation of cell division and the reduction of growth and net protein synthesis through ppGpp accumulation, together with minimization of existing fatty acid turnover (DiRusso & Nystrom, 1998
).
Previous studies in our laboratory have demonstrated that a V. angustum S14 spoT mutant displays a severe loss in viability during carbon starvation (Ostling et al., 1995 , 1996
), a phenotype similar to that of the E. coli relA spoT mutant (Nystrom, 1994
). Moreover, the carbon starvation lethality of the spoT mutant depends on laboratory fluorescent light, which emits extremely weak UV radiation (Ostling et al., 1995
). However, ppGpp levels are increased in the carbon-starved V. angustum S14 spoT mutant in contrast to the E. coli relA spoT mutant, which displays decreased levels of ppGpp (Ostling et al., 1995
; Xiao et al., 1991
). To further address the above postulated link between carbon starvation and fatty acid starvation, two important factors in carbon starvation survival, spoT-dependent ppGpp accumulation and the RpoS regulon, were examined during cerulenin-induced fatty acid starvation. Furthermore, these factors were characterized with regard to their roles in starvation-induced stress resistance. Through the use of various mutant strains of E. coli and V. angustum S14, we report that SpoT-mediated ppGpp accumulation, RpoS and the RpoS-controlled DNA-binding protein (Dps) are required for fatty acid starvation survival in the presence of cool-white fluorescent light. This survival is partly dependent on the resistance to oxidative stress imposed by the weak UV radiation from laboratory fluorescent light. The possible negative effect of ppGpp overaccumulation on fatty acid starvation survival is also discussed.
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METHODS |
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Starvation conditions and light source.
Fatty acid starvation was achieved by adding cerulenin (Sigma) to a final concentration of 200 µg ml-1 to cultures at OD600 0·2. Cultures subjected to starvation regimens were stored statically in glass flasks positioned on the laboratory bench top, either directly under the light of a cool-white fluorescent lamp (F15T8CW, Philips Lighting) or under the light covered by a sheet of UV-cutoff perspex (GE Lexan XL-10, Cadillac). The distance between the lamp and the flasks was 50 cm. According to the information provided by the manufacturer, the UV emission spectrum of the light source was mainly identical in the UVA (320400 nm) region with a peak at 366 nm (Fig. 1a). The intensities of UVB (290320 nm) and UVC (<290 nm) light were much lower than that of the UVA in the cool-white fluorescent light (Cebula et al., 1995
). The perspex sheet and the glass flask used in this study were placed into the beam of a visibleUV spectrophotometer (DU640, Beckman), and their UVvisible light transmittance spectra in the 250500 nm range were obtained (Fig. 1b
). The perspex sheet was essentially opaque at all wavelengths below 400 nm (UVA, UVB and UVC). The glass flask was opaque to UV wavelengths of 290 nm or less (UVC). Measured by a wavelength UV-meter (UV products) outside the glass flasks, the mean fluence rate used for the cool-white fluorescent light exposure in this study was 0·2 W m-2. In all experiments, non-illuminated flasks covered with aluminium foil were used as controls. Restoration experiments were performed with illuminated starvation-stressed cells, to which 26 U catalase ml-1 (Sigma) was added at 0 h of starvation. Viability was assessed at appropriate time intervals in terms of c.f.u. ml-1 on appropriate agar plates, by the drop-plate method (Hoben & Somsegaran, 1982
).
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Measurement of ppGpp.
The method used to assay ppGpp was performed as described by Cashel (1994) . Briefly, cells were grown in the appropriate minimal medium with a low phosphate concentration (0·4 mM). When OD600 0·05 was reached, [32P]orthophosphate (Amersham) was added to a culture aliquot at a concentration of 100 µCi ml-1, and incubation was continued for about 120 min. Cell densities were monitored in an unlabelled culture aliquot. Sampling for ppGpp began at OD600 0·20·5. The samples were then mixed with 13 M formic acid and three freezethaw cycles were performed. Afterwards, the samples were centrifuged and 5 µl samples of supernatant were subjected to one-dimensional TLC on polyethyleneimine sheets (Merck) and developed with 1·5 M potassium phosphate (pH 3·4). Nucleotide abundance was quantified by a Phosphor-Imager Analysis System (Bio-Rad). Amounts of ppGpp were expressed as the total activity (c.p.m.) of blank-corrected ppGpp per OD600 unit of culture.
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RESULTS |
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DISCUSSION |
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UV-induced oxidative stress and fatty acid starvation
It is interesting that the fatty acid starvation lethality of the cells with mutations in spoT, rpoS and dps is provoked by standard laboratory cool-white fluorescent light. Furthermore, this lethal effect was found to be mostly due to the weak UV emission of the light. According to the information provided by the manufacturer, the main fraction of the UV emission from the cool-white fluorescent lamp is UVA radiation (Fig. 1a). The lamp also emits very low levels of UVB and UVC that may cause direct damage to DNA (Cebula et al., 1995
). However, the effect of UVC can be ruled out in this study since the glass flasks we used block UVC radiation (Fig. 1b
). UVA and UVB produce many reactive oxygen species (ROS) through photo-oxidation and hence cause oxidative damage to DNA, proteins and membrane lipids in bacteria (Eisenstark, 1989
). ROS are produced during normal cellular metabolism, but can be augmented after cellular exposure to UV, especially in the presence of various photo-sensitizers (Jagger, 1981
). The light-dependent lethal effects reported here are suggested to be mainly due to UV-induced oxidative stress rather than to direct DNA damage. This hypothesis was also supported by the following findings: (i) the spoT mutants were found to be more sensitive to UV radiation as well as to H2O2 exposure in comparison to their isogenic parents during fatty acid starvation (unpublished data); (ii) addition of exogenous catalase to the growth medium during fatty acid starvation in this study reversed most of the loss in cell viability of the spoT mutants provoked by fluorescent light illumination (Fig. 6
). We note that since only UVA and UVB of solar UV irradiation reach marine surface waters, the natural habitats of marine Vibrio species, our findings have clear ecological implications (Joux et al., 1999
). Moreover, our observed lethal effects occur in starved cells exposed to extremely weak UV radiation from laboratory cool-white fluorescent light. Its intensity (0·2 W m-2) is much lower than that of full sunlight (33 W m-2), and is typical of the intensities found in marine surface waters, where the UV radiation is quenched (Jeffrey et al., 1996
).
One of the factors that appear to play an important role in the response of bacterial cells to UV irradiation is the mechanism known as stringent response. It is well known that UV exposure affects tRNA containing a 4-thiouridine modified base, which cross-links with cytidine, losing its charge capacity and triggering the stringent response with RelA-mediated ppGpp accumulation and the consequent arrest of rRNA and protein biosynthesis. This mechanism induces a growth delay, including impairment of replication and membrane integrity in E. coli (Jagger, 1981 ; Thiam & Favre, 1984
), Salmonella typhimurium (Kramer et al., 1988
) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Fernandez & Pizarro, 1999
). It may be questioned whether the UV emission employed in this study, rather than fatty acid starvation, provoke the ppGpp accumulation observed in this study. However, our experimental conditions are distinct from the UV radiation used in the studies reported above. Firstly, the fluence rate of UV emission used here is 0·2 W m-2, which is much lower than the levels reported before: 216 W m-2 for E. coli (Jagger, 1981
; Thiam & Favre, 1984
), and 35 W m-2 for S. typhimurium (Kramer et al., 1988
) and P. aeruginosa (Fernandez & Pizarro, 1999
). Secondly, in contrast to the findings reported in the papers cited above, we did not observe growth delay or significant ppGpp accumulation in the growing cells illuminated by the cool-white fluorescent light (data not shown). Thirdly, the patterns of ppGpp accumulation we observed for the fatty-acid-starved cells in the light and dark are similar (data not shown), suggesting that starvation, instead of light, is needed as a means of inducing ppGpp. It is therefore suggested that the extremely weak UV emission used in this study do not serve as a factor to trigger RelA-mediated ppGpp accumulation in the starvation adaptive response, but act as a stress challenge to the starved cells.
SpoT-mediated ppGpp accumulation has been shown to be important for carbon starvation survival (Nystrom, 1994 ; Ostling et al., 1995
). The stationary-phase sigma factor RpoS is required for resistance to nutrient starvation, UVA radiation and oxidative stress (Eisenstark, 1998
; Eisenstark et al., 1996
; Hengge-Aronis, 1996
; Loewen & Hengge-Aronis, 1994
). The RpoS-regulated protein Dps (DNA-binding protein in starvation) is also known to be important in oxidative stress resistance, via protection of DNA against ROS attack (Almiron et al., 1992
). Hence, the light-dependent lethality of the spoT, rpoS and dps mutants during fatty acid starvation may not be surprising. However, it is worthwhile to note the differences among the losses in viability during fatty acid starvation for the relA spoT mutant, the rpoS mutant and the dps mutant. The greater lethality for the relA spoT mutant in comparison to that for the rpoS mutant can be explained by the recent finding that ppGpp is required for the expression of RpoS-controlled genes in a RpoS-independent manner (Kvint et al., 2000
). Furthermore, McGlynn & Lloyd (2000)
demonstrated that ppGpp plays a direct role in promoting the ability of E. coli cells to survive UV-induced DNA damage. This increased survival may be explained by the destabilization of RNA polymerase promoter open complexes, or by stalled elongation complexes (Bartlett et al., 1998
; Zhou & Jin, 1998
), thereby minimizing stalled RNA polymerase blocks to replication fork progression and excision repair. The greater lethality of the dps mutant in comparison to that of the rpoS mutant indicates that Dps may play a more direct role in protecting cells against stress attack in starvation. This assumption is also supported by the multi-factorial regulation of Dps expression, i.e. it is activated by OxyR during exponential phase and by IHF and RpoS in stationary phase (Altuvia et al., 1994
). Together, these results suggest that the fatty acid starvation adaptation of the illuminated bacterial cells requires successful defence against UV-imposed oxidative stress, and that the starvation-induced stress resistance is dependent on spoT-dependent ppGpp accumulation, as well as the upregulation of rpoS and RpoS-controlled stress resistance genes such as dps.
Accumulation of ppGpp and fatty acid starvation survival
The light-exposed E. coli relA spoT mutant CF1693 loses cell viability and fails to accumulate ppGpp following fatty acid starvation. However, the light-exposed E. coli relA mutant maintains cell viability and accumulates ppGpp as the wild-type strain does during fatty acid starvation. This suggests a correlation between the loss in viability and the lack of spoT-dependent ppGpp accumulation. A similar correlation has been found in carbon starvation adaptation, in which ppGpp accumulation during the first few hours of starvation has a long-term effect on the survival ability for many days (Matin, 2000 ; Nystrom, 1994
). The fatty acid starvation lethality of the E. coli relA spoT deletion mutant is not surprising, since this ppGpp0 strain is more sensitive to many other stresses, including carbon starvation and amino acid starvation (Nystrom, 1994
; Xiao et al., 1991
). The V. angustum S14 spoT mutant J109 displayed threefold higher ppGpp levels and a severe loss in viability in comparison to the wild-type strain S14 during fatty acid starvation. J109 contains a Tn10 insertion in the middle of the spoT gene and exhibits higher ppGpp accumulation as well as light-dependent loss in viability during carbon starvation (Ostling et al., 1995
). Therefore, the transposon insertion spoT mutant of V. angustum S14 is different from the relA spoT deletion mutant of E. coli. Although the mechanism of the ppGpp overaccumulation in J109 is unknown, the similar transposon disruption mutants in E. coli (Sarubbi et al., 1989
) suggest that it may be due to the reduced ppGppase activity of SpoT. Thus, the fatty acid starvation lethality of light-exposed V. angustum S14 spoT mutant cells appears to depend on a greater and prolonged elevation of ppGpp levels, caused by the truncated SpoT protein.
Artificial overproduction of ppGpp by overexpression of a recombinant relA in E. coli during fatty acid starvation under light led to a marked loss in cell viability, which was analogous to the results observed for the V. angustum S14 spoT mutant. Also, the E. coli spoT203 allele, found to reduce ppGpp degradative activity resulting in an overelevation of ppGpp levels (Sarubbi et al., 1988 ), significantly exacerbates the decline in viability during fatty acid starvation under light. These results support our hypothesis that overaccumulation of ppGpp impairs the survival ability of the illuminated fatty-acid-starved cells. Apirakaramwong et al. (1999)
reported a similar decline in cell viability in stationary phase due to artificial ppGpp overaccumulation. After overexpression of a recombinant constitutive relA in E. coli, a rapid increase in the levels of ppGpp was observed, accompanied by a severe loss in viability and a decrease in the RpoS level (Apirakaramwong et al., 1999
). This finding is unexpected because it has been reported that RpoS synthesis is upregulated by ppGpp (Gentry et al., 1993
; Lange et al., 1995
). However, it suggests that the prolonged ppGpp accumulation may become toxic for cells in late-phase starvation through the reduction of RpoS levels. Since accumulation of ppGpp has the dual consequences of stimulating and inhibiting gene expression, it is likely that the proper balance of these effects must be set for an appropriate physiological response. In other words, overaccumulation of ppGpp may inhibit rRNA synthesis and down-regulate the protein synthetic capacity to a level which is below that required for sufficient translation of stress resistance proteins. Although the lethal effect of ppGpp overaccumulation with fatty acid starvation was more significant than that without starvation, the sole killing effect of ppGpp overproduction might not be ruled out, which was supported by recent studies (Aizenman et al., 1996
; Sat et al., 2001
) showing that MazEF-mediated programmed cell death is induced by the artificial overproduction of ppGpp, leading to higher concentrations than those of physiological conditions.
Based on the results presented in this study, we propose that successful fatty acid starvation survival of the light-exposed bacterial cells depends on an adaptive response, which requires appropriate spoT-dependent ppGpp accumulation, the upregulation of RpoS and hence the induction of RpoS-controlled stress resistance proteins such as Dps. Lack, or overaccumulation, of ppGpp impairs the fatty acid starvation survival of light-exposed cells. These early-phase starvation-induced proteins are able to exert prevention and/or repair of the UV-induced oxidative damage, leading to effective protection against naturally occurring weak UV radiation.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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Received 8 June 2001;
revised 3 October 2001;
accepted 5 October 2001.