Cbl upregulates cysH for hydrogen sulfide production in Aeromonas veronii

Yidong Zhang; Zebin Liu; Yanqiong Tang; Xiang Ma; Hongqian Tang; Hong Li; Zhu Liu

doi:10.7717/peerj.12058

Cbl upregulates cysH for hydrogen sulfide production in Aeromonas veronii

PeerJ. 2021 Sep 9:9:e12058. doi: 10.7717/peerj.12058. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Yidong Zhang^#¹, Zebin Liu^#¹, Yanqiong Tang¹, Xiang Ma¹, Hongqian Tang¹, Hong Li¹, Zhu Liu¹

Affiliation

¹ Hainan University, Haikou, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Endogenous hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) is generated in many metabolism pathways, and has been recognized as a second messenger against antibiotics and reactive oxygen species (ROS). In Aeromonas veronii, Small Protein B (SmpB) plays an important role in resisting stress. The absence of smpB could trigger sulfate assimilation pathway to adapt the nutrient deficiency, of which was mediated by up-regulation of cbl and cys genes and followed with enhancing H₂S production. To figure out the mutual regulations of cbl and cys genes, a series of experiments were performed. Compared with the wild type, cysH was down-regulated significantly in cbl deletion by qRT-PCR. The fluorescence analysis further manifested that Cbl had a positive regulatory effect on the promoter of cysJIH. Bacterial one-hybrid analysis and electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) verified that Cbl bound with the promoter of cysJIH. Collectively, the tolerance to adversity could be maintained by the production of H₂S when SmpB was malfunctioned, of which the activity of cysJIH promoter was positively regulated by upstream Cbl protein. The outcomes also suggested the enormous potentials of Aeromonas veronii in environmental adaptability.

Keywords: Cbl; H2S metabolism; Regulation; SmpB.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China Nos. 31772887 (to Zhu Liu). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.