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Effect of tellurite-mediated oxidative stress on the Escherichia coli glycolytic pathway

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Abstract

To unveil the metabolic impact of tellurite in the bacterial cell, the effect of this toxicant on the expression and activity of key enzymes of the Escherichia coli glycolytic pathway was analyzed. E. coli exposure to tellurite results in: (i) increased glucose consumption, which was paralleled by an increased expression of the glucose transporter-encoding gene ptsG, (ii) augmented phosphoglucoisomerase activity and pgi transcription, (iii) decreased activity of the enzymatic regulators phosphofructokinase and pyruvate kinase. In spite of these observations, increased intracellular pyruvate, phosphoenol pyruvate and phosphorylated sugars was observed. E. coli lacking key glycolytic enzymes was considerably more sensitive to tellurite than the parental, isogenic, wild type strain. Taken together, these results suggest that increasing the availability of key metabolites (pyruvate, phosphoenol pyruvate, NADPH), required to respond to tellurite mediated-stress, E. coli shifts the carbon flux towards the pentose phosphate pathway thus facilitating the functioning of the Entner–Doudoroff pathway and/or the glycolytic productive phase.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by FONDECYT (Fondo Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica) Grants # 1090097 (C.C.V.) and # 3100049 (J.M.P.). Dicyt (Dirección de Investigación)-USACH # 021043PD and IFS (International Foundation for Science) # F/4733 grants to J.M.P. are also acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Química y Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Mauricio Valdivia-González & José M. Pérez-Donoso

  2. Laboratorio de Microbiología Molecular, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Química y Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Casilla 40, Correo 33, Santiago, Chile

    Claudio C. Vásquez

Authors
  1. Mauricio Valdivia-González
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  2. José M. Pérez-Donoso
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  3. Claudio C. Vásquez
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Claudio C. Vásquez.

Electronic supplementary material

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10534_2012_9518_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Supplementary material 1 (TIFF 29 kb). Fig. S1 Pyruvate, phosphoenolpyruvate and total phosphorylated sugars levels in tellurite-exposed E. coli BW25113. Metabolites were determined by HPLC as described in Methods. Bars represent the average of 3 independent trials

10534_2012_9518_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Supplementary material 2 (TIFF 14 kb). Fig. S2 PGI activity in E. coli exposed to tellurite. Enzyme activity was assayed in crude extracts of the indicated strains as described in Methods. Bars represent the average of 4 independent trials

10534_2012_9518_MOESM3_ESM.tif

Supplementary material 3 (TIFF 99 kb). Fig. S3 Model that illustrates our current view of tellurite effect on bacterial glycolysis. PGI, phosphoglucose isomerase; PFK, phosphofructokinase; TIM, triose phosphate isomerase; GAPDH, glyceraldehide-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; PK, pyruvate kinase; G6PDH, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase; 6PGD, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase; ACN, aconitase; FUM, fumarase; PDH, pyruvate dehydrogenase; Nir, nitrate reductase; CAT, catalase; G6P, glucose-6-phosphate; F6P, fructose-6-phosphate; FBP, fructose-1,6-bisphosphate; G3P, glyceraldehide-3-phosphate; PEP, phosphoenolpyruvate; PYR, pyruvate; DHAP, dihydroxyacetone phosphate. Once tellurite enters the cytoplasm (1), it is enzymatically reduced by PDH, Nir or CAT, with the concomitant generation of superoxide. This radical damages enzymes like ACN and FUM thus affecting the functioning of the Krebs cycle. In addition, superoxide activates soxS regulon which in turn induces zwf, ptsG and pgi transcription. Increased PtsG (a subunit of Enzyme IIGlc) levels result in increased glucose transport into the cytoplasm (2). Although PGI activity is enhanced in these conditions (3), PFK activity is decreased (4). Given that the activity of the PPP enzymes G6PDH and 6PGD is enhanced upon toxicant exposure, this observation suggests that a metabolic flux change towards PPP occur (5). The final F6P (G3P is also generated) product of PPP can be isomerized to G6P entering again the PPP (6). PPP intermediates can be used to generate PYR and G3P by the Entner-Doudoroff pathway (E-D) (7). Synthesized G3P could enter glycolysis to form PEP (8), which is required for glucose entrance (2). Since PK and PFK activities are decreased (9), high pyruvate levels could result as consequence of glucose transporters (2) and/or E-D (7) activity

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Valdivia-González, M., Pérez-Donoso, J.M. & Vásquez, C.C. Effect of tellurite-mediated oxidative stress on the Escherichia coli glycolytic pathway. Biometals 25, 451–458 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10534-012-9518-x

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