Research Article

Escherichia coli Response to Exogenous Pyrophosphate and Analogs
Francis Biville^a, Taku Oshima^b, Hirotada Mori^b,c, Yuya Kawagoe^d, Odile Bouvet^e, Marie-Noëlle Rager^f, Marina Perrotte-Piquemal^a, Antoine Danchin<sup>a,g

a</sup>Unité de Génétique des Génomes bactériens, Département de Biochimie et Génétique moléculaire, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France;
^bCREST, JST (Japan Science and Technology), Nara,
^cResearch and Education Center for Genetic Information, and
^dDepartment of Cellular Biology, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Ikoma, Japan;
^eUnité 510, INSERM, Pathogènes et fonction des cellules epithéliales polarisées, Faculté de Pharmacie Paris XI, Châtenay-Malabry, France;
^fService de Résonance Magnétique Nucléaire, UMR 75 76, Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris, Paris, France;
^gHong Kong University Pasteur Research Center, Hong Kong, China

Address of Corresponding Author

J Mol Microbiol Biotechnol 2003;5:37-45 (DOI: 10.1159/000068722)

  Key Words

• Pyrophosphate
• Growth yield
• Cyclic AMP synthesis
• Regulation
• Iron uptake
• Transcriptome

  Abstract

The addition of exogenous pyrophosphate increases the growth yield and cAMP synthesis in stationary phase when Escherichia coli is grown in minimal medium. Pyrophosphate increases the yield by altering the enterobactin uptake system. We studied the physiological effects and examined how the E. coli transcriptome was modified when two structural analogs of pyrophosphate were added to the growth medium. Methylenediphosphonic acid or a high concentration of iron had the same positive effects as pyrophosphate on growth yield, cAMP synthesis and the repression of Fur-regulated genes. In contrast, imidodiphosphate did not affect these cellular processes significantly. The transcriptome modifications generated by pyrophosphate or methylenediphosphonic acid were more similar than those generated by imidodiphosphate or excess iron. The transcriptome data also indicated that processes other than iron uptake might be involved in the cellular response to exogenous pyrophosphate or methylenediphosphonic acid.

Copyright © 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel

  Author Contacts

Dr. Francis Biville
Unité de Génétique des Génomes bactériens
Département de Biochimie et Génétique moléculaire, Institut Pasteur
28, rue du Docteur Roux, F-75724 Paris, Cedex 15 (France)
Tel. +33 1 40 61 32 77, Fax +33 1 45 68 87 90, E-Mail fbiville@pasteur.fr

  Article Information

Number of Print Pages : 9
Number of Figures : 6, Number of Tables : 4, Number of References : 30