Hyper Accumulation of Arsenic in Mutants of Ochrobactrum tritici Silenced for Arsenite Efflux Pumps

PLoS One. 2015 Jul 1;10(7):e0131317. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0131317. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Ochrobactrum tritici SCII24T is a highly As-resistant bacterium, with two previously described arsenic resistance operons, ars1 and ars2. Among a large number of genes, these operons contain the arsB and Acr3 genes that encode the arsenite efflux pumps responsible for arsenic resistance. Exploring the genome of O. tritici SCII24T, an additional putative operon (ars3) was identified and revealed the presence of the Acr3_2 gene that encodes for an arsenite efflux protein but which came to prove to not be required for full As resistance. The genes encoding for arsenite efflux pumps, identified in this strain, were inactivated to develop microbial accumulators of arsenic as new tools for bioremediation. Six different mutants were produced, studied and three were more useful as biotools. O. tritici wild type and the Acr3-mutants showed the highest resistance to As(III), being able to grow up to 50 mM of arsenite. On the other hand, arsB-mutants were not able to grow at concentrations higher than 1 mM As(III), and were the most As(III) sensitive mutants. In the presence of 1 mM As(III), the strain with arsB and Acr3_1 mutated showed the highest intracellular arsenic concentration (up to 17 ng(As)/mg protein), while in assays with 5 mM As(III), the single arsB-mutant was able to accumulate the highest concentration of arsenic (up to 10 ng(As)/mg protein). Therefore, arsB is the main gene responsible for arsenite resistance in O. tritici. However, both genes arsB and Acr3_1 play a crucial role in the resistance mechanism, depending on the arsenite concentration in the medium. In conclusion, at moderate arsenite concentrations, the double arsB- and Acr3_1-mutant exhibited a great ability to accumulate arsenite and can be seen as a promising bioremediation tool for environmental arsenic detoxification.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Arsenic / toxicity*
  • Arsenite Transporting ATPases / deficiency
  • Arsenite Transporting ATPases / genetics*
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics*
  • Bacterial Proteins / metabolism
  • Biodegradation, Environmental
  • Drug Resistance, Bacterial / genetics
  • Environmental Pollutants / toxicity*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial*
  • Genetic Engineering
  • Ion Transport
  • Mutation*
  • Ochrobactrum / drug effects*
  • Ochrobactrum / genetics
  • Ochrobactrum / metabolism
  • Operon

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins
  • Environmental Pollutants
  • Arsenite Transporting ATPases
  • Arsenic

Grants and funding

This research was funded by FEDER through the program COMPETE and by national funds through FCT, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, under projects PEst- 496C/EME/UI0285/2014 and CENTRO-07-0224-FEDER- 497 002001 and PTDC/BIA-MIC/114958/2009. TS is funded by a scholarship of the project. RB is funded by a post-doc grant (SFRH/BPD/48330/2008). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.