• BMB Reports
• /
• v.36 no.6
• /
• pp.608-610
• /
• 2003

Escherichia coli has two catalases, HPI and HPII. HPI is induced during logarithmic growth in response to low concentrations of hydrogen peroxide. This induction is OxyR-dependent. On the other hand, HPII is not peroxide-inducible but is induced in entry to the stationary phase. We demonstrate here that E. coli displayed higher HPI catalase activity when compared to the cultures that were grown in a normal medium, if grown in a medium supplemented with iron-citrate. Iron supplementation had no effect on HPII catalase. This increase of HPI activity was OxyR-independent and not observed in a ${\Delta}fur$ mutant. The physiological significance of the increase of HPI activity is unclear, but it appears that the katG gene that codes for HPI catalase is among the genes that are regulated by Fur.

• Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.277-283
• /
• 1997

Promoters inducible by paraquat, a superocide-generating agent, were isolated from Escherichia coli using a promoter-probing plasmid pRS415 with promoterless lacA gene. Twenty one promoters induced by paraquat were selected and further characterized. From sequence analysis, thirteen of the promoters were mapped to their specific loci on the Escherichia coli chromosome. Several promoters were mapped to the upstream of known genes such as usgl, katG, and mglB, whose relationships with superoxide response have not been previously reported. Other promoters were mapped to the upstream region of unknown open reading frames. Downstream of HC 96 promoter are uncharacterized ORFs whose sequences are homologous to ABC-transporter subunits. Downstream of HC84 promoter is an ORF encoding a transcriptional regulator-like protein, which contains a LysR family-specific HTH (helix-turn-helix) DNA bindign motif. We investigated whether these promoters belong to the soxRS regulon. All promoters except HC96 were found to belong to the soxRS regulon. The HC96 promoter was significantly induced by paraquat in the soxRS deletion mutant strain. The basal transcription level of three promoters (HE43, HC71, HD94) significantly increased at the stationary phase, implying that they are regulated by RpoS. However, paraquat inducibility of all promoters disappeared in the stationary phase, suggesting that SoxRS regulatory system is active only in rapidly growing cells.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.49 no.1
• /
• pp.105-108
• /
• 2011

The increased concern for the security of the oil supply and the negative impact of fossil fuels on the environment, particularly greenhouse gas emissions, has put pressure on society to find renewable fuel alternatives. Compared to the traditional biofuel, ethanol, higher alcohols offer advantage as gasoline substitutes because of their higher energy density and lower hygroscopicity. For this reason, microbial fermentation is known as potential producers for sustainable energy carriers. In this study, bacterial responses including cellular and molecular toxicity were studied in three different microorganisms, such as Escherichia coli, Clostridium acetobutylicum, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In this study, it was analyzed specific stress responses caused by ethanol and buthanol using four different stress responsive genes, i.e. fabA, grpE, katG and recA. The expression levels of these genes were quantified by semi-quantitative reverse transcription-PCR. It was found that four genes have shown different responsive patterns when E. coli cultures were under stressful conditions caused by ethanol and buthanol, respectively. Therefore, in this study, the stress responsive effects caused by these alcohols and the extent of each stress response can be analyzed using the expression levels and patterns of different stress responsive genes.