Dichloromethane mediated in vivo selection and functional characterization of rat glutathione S-transferase theta 1-1 variants.

Methylobacterium dichloromethanicum DM4 is able to grow with dichloromethane as the sole carbon and energy source by using a dichloromethane dehalogenase/glutathione S-transferase (GST) for the conversion of dichloromethane to formaldehyde. Mammalian homologs of this bacterial enzyme are also known to catalyze this reaction. However, the dehalogenation of dichloromethane by GST T1-1 from rat was highly mutagenic and toxic to methylotrophic bacteria. Plasmid-driven expression of rat GST T1-1 in strain DM4-2cr, a mutant of strain DM4 lacking dichloromethane dehalogenase, reduced cell viability 10(5)-fold in the presence of dichloromethane. This effect was exploited to select dichloromethane-resistant transconjugants of strain DM4-2cr carrying a plasmid-encoded rGSTT1 gene. Transconjugants that still expressed the GST T1 protein after dichloromethane treatment included rGSTT1 mutants encoding protein variants with sequence changes from the wild-type ranging from single residue exchanges to large insertions and deletions. A structural model of rat GST T1-1 suggested that sequence variation was clustered around the glutathione activation site and at the protein C-terminus believed to cap the active site. The enzymatic activity of purified His-tagged GST T1-1 variants expressed in Escherichia coli was markedly reduced with both dichloromethane and the alternative substrate 1,2-epoxy-3-(4'-nitrophenoxy)propane. These results provide the first experimental evidence for the involvement of Gln102 and Arg107 in catalysis, and illustrate the potential of in vivo approaches to identify catalytic residues in GSTs whose activity leads to toxic effects.

Enzyme-mediated dichloromethane toxicity and mutagenicity of bacterial and mammalian dichloromethane-active glutathione S-transferases.

The kinetic properties of bacterial and rat liver glutathione S-transferases (GST) active with dichloromethane (DCM) were compared. The theta class glutathione S-transferase (rGSTTI-1) from rat liver had an affinity for dihalomethanes lower by three orders of magnitude (K(app) > 50 mM) than the bacterial DCM dehalogenase/GST from Methylophilus sp. DM11. Unlike the bacterial DCM dehalogenase, the rat enzyme was unable to support growth of the dehalogenase minus Methylobacterium sp. DM4-2cr mutant with DCM. Moreover, the presence of DCM inhibited growth with methanol of the DM4-2cr transconjugant expressing the rat liver GSTT1-1. In Salmonella typhimurium TA1535, expression of rat and bacterial DCM-active GST from a plasmid in the presence of DCM yielded up to 5.3 times more reversions to histidine prototrophy in the transconjugant expressing the rat enzyme. Under the same conditions, however, GST-mediated conversion of DCM to formaldehyde was lower in cell-free extracts of the transconjugant expressing the rat GSTT1 than in the corresponding strain expressing the bacterial DCM dehalogenase. This provided new evidence that formaldehyde was not the main toxicant associated with GST-mediated DCM conversion, and indicated that an intermediate in the transformation of DCM by GST, presumably S-chloromethylglutathione, was responsible for the observed effects. The marked differences in substrate affinity of rat and bacterial DCM-active GST, as well as in the toxicity and genotoxicity associated with expression of these enzymes in bacteria, suggest that bacterial DCM dehalogenases/GST have evolved to minimise the toxic effects associated with glutathione-mediated catalysis of DCM conversion.

Effects of bacterial host and dichloromethane dehalogenase on the competitiveness of methylotrophic bacteria growing with dichloromethane.

Methylobacterium sp. strain DM4 and Methylophilus sp. strain DM11 can grow with dichloromethane (DCM) as the sole source of carbon and energy by virtue of homologous glutathione-dependent DCM dehalogenases with markedly different kinetic properties (the kcat values of the enzymes of these strains are 0.6 and 3.3 S-1, respectively, and the Km values are 9 and 59 microM, respectively). These strains, as well as transconjugant bacteria expressing the DCM dehalogenase gene (dcmA) from DM11 or DM4 on a broad-host-range plasmid in the background of dcmA mutant DM4-2cr, were investigated by growing them under growth-limiting conditions and in the presence of an excess of DCM. The maximal growth rates and maximal levels of dehalogenase for chemostat-adapted bacteria were higher than the maximal growth rates and maximal levels of dehalogenase for batch-grown bacteria. The substrate saturation constant of strain DM4 was much lower than the Km of its associated dehalogenase, suggesting that this strain is adapted to scavenge low concentrations of DCM. Strains and transconjugants expressing the DCM dehalogenase from strain DM11, on the other hand, had higher growth rates than bacteria expressing the homologous dehalogenase from strain DM4. Competition experiments performed with pairs of DCM-degrading strains revealed that a strain expressing the dehalogenase from DM4 had a selective advantage in continuous culture under substrate-limiting conditions, while strains expressing the DM11 dehalogenase were superior in batch culture when there was an excess of substrate. Only DCM-degrading bacteria with a dcmA gene similar to that from strain DM4, however, were obtained in batch enrichment cultures prepared with activated sludge from sewage treatment plants.

Biodegradation of the pesticide 4,6-dinitro-ortho-cresol by microorganisms in batch cultures and in fixed-bed column reactors.

A mixed culture of microorganisms able to utilize 4,6-dinitro-ortho-cresol (DNOC) as the sole source of carbon, nitrogen and energy was isolated from soil contaminated with pesticides and from activated sludge. DNOC was decomposed aerobically in batch cultures as well as in fixed-bed column reactors. Between 65% and 84% of the substrate nitrogen was released as nitrate into the medium, and 61% of the carbon from uniformly 14C-labelled DNOC was recovered as 14CO2. The mixed microbial culture also decomposed 4-nitrophenol and 2,4-dinitrophenol but not 2,3-dinitrophenol, 2,6-dinitrophenol, 2,4-dinitrotoluene, 2,4-dinitrobenzoic acid or 2-sec-butyl-4,6-dinitrophenol (Dinoseb). Maximal degradation rates for DNOC by the bacterial biofilm immobilized on glass beads in fixed-bed column reactors were 30 mmol day-1 (1 reactor volume)-1, leaving an effluent concentration of less than 5 micrograms l-1 DNOC in the outflowing medium. The apparent Ks value of the immobilized mixed culture for DNOC was 17 microM. Degradation was inhibited at DNOC concentrations above 30 microM and it ceased at 340 microM, possibly because of the uncoupling action of the nitroaromatic compound on the cellular energy-transducing mechanism.