Molecular mechanism of sulfur chemolithotrophy in the betaproteobacterium Pusillimonas ginsengisoli SBSA.

Chemolithotrophic sulfur oxidation represents a significant part of the biogeochemical cycling of this element. Due to its long evolutionary history, this ancient metabolism is well known for its extensive mechanistic and phylogenetic diversification across a diverse taxonomic spectrum. Here we carried out whole-genome sequencing and analysis of a new betaproteobacterial isolate, Pusillimonas ginsengisoli SBSA, which is found to oxidize thiosulfate via the formation of tetrathionate as an intermediate. The 4.7 Mb SBSA genome was found to encompass a soxCDYZAXOB operon, plus single thiosulfate dehydrogenase (tsdA) and sulfite : acceptor oxidoreductase (sorAB) genes. Recombination-based knockout of tsdA revealed that the entire thiosulfate is first converted to tetrathionate by the activity of thiosulfate dehydrogenase (TsdA) and the Sox pathway is not functional in this bacterium despite the presence of all necessary sox genes. The ∆soxYZ and ∆soxXA knockout mutants exhibited a wild-type-like phenotype for thiosulfate/tetrathionate oxidation, whereas ∆soxB, ∆soxCD and soxO::KanR mutants only oxidized thiosulfate up to tetrathionate intermediate and had complete impairment in tetrathionate oxidation. The substrate-dependent O2 consumption rate of whole cells and the sulfur-oxidizing enzyme activities of cell-free extracts, measured in the presence/absence of thiol inhibitors/glutathione, indicated that glutathione plays a key role in SBSA tetrathionate oxidation. The present findings collectively indicate that the potential glutathione : tetrathionate coupling in P. ginsengisoli involves a novel enzymatic component, which is different from the dual-functional thiol dehydrotransferase (ThdT), while subsequent oxidation of the sulfur intermediates produced (e.g. glutathione : sulfodisulfane molecules) may proceed via the iterative action of soxBCD .

A novel soxO gene, encoding a glutathione disulfide reductase, is essential for tetrathionate oxidation in Advenella kashmirensis.

Molecular mechanisms of chemolithotrophic tetrathionate oxidation are not clearly understood. Here we used transposon(Tn5-mob)-insertion mutagenesis to search for novel tetrathionate oxidation genes in the facultatively chemolithoautotrophic betaproteobacterium Advenella kashmirensis that not only oxidizes tetrathionate, but also produces the same as an intermediate during thiosulfate oxidation. Genome-wide random insertion of Tn5-mob occurred at a frequency of one per 104 donor E. coli cells. A library of 8000 transconjugants yielded five tetrathionate-oxidation-impaired mutants, of which, the one named Ak_Tn_16 was studied here in detail. When grown chemolithoautotrophically on thiosulfate, Ak_Tn_16 converted the total thiosulfate supplied to equivalent amount of tetrathionate, exactly in the same way as the wild type. It could not, however, oxidize the intermediary tetrathionate to sulfate; Ak_Tn_16 could not also oxidize tetrathionate when it was supplied as the starting chemolithotrophic substrate. In the Ak_Tn_16 genome, Tn5-mob was found to have transposed in a novel soxO gene, located just-upstream of soxB, within the sox gene cluster. SoxO was predicted, via iterative threading assembly simulation, to be a glutathione-disulfide (GSSG) reductase. When Ak_Tn_16 was grown in tetrathionate-based chemolithoautotrophic medium supplemented with reduced glutathione (GSH) its tetrathionate-oxidation deficiency, remarkably, was ameliorated. Implications for a key role of GSH in tetrathionate oxidation are discussed in the light of other molecular evidences available for A. kashmirensis.

Kinetic enrichment of 34S during proteobacterial thiosulfate oxidation and the conserved role of SoxB in S-S bond breaking.

During chemolithoautotrophic thiosulfate oxidation, the phylogenetically diverged proteobacteria Paracoccus pantotrophus, Tetrathiobacter kashmirensis, and Thiomicrospira crunogena rendered steady enrichment of (34)S in the end product sulfate, with overall fractionation ranging between -4.6‰ and +5.8‰. The fractionation kinetics of T. crunogena was essentially similar to that of P. pantotrophus, albeit the former had a slightly higher magnitude and rate of (34)S enrichment. In the case of T. kashmirensis, the only significant departure of its fractionation curve from that of P. pantotrophus was observed during the first 36 h of thiosulfate-dependent growth, in the course of which tetrathionate intermediate formation is completed and sulfate production starts. The almost-identical (34)S enrichment rates observed during the peak sulfate-producing stage of all three processes indicated the potential involvement of identical S-S bond-breaking enzymes. Concurrent proteomic analyses detected the hydrolase SoxB (which is known to cleave terminal sulfone groups from SoxYZ-bound cysteine S-thiosulfonates, as well as cysteine S-sulfonates, in P. pantotrophus) in the actively sulfate-producing cells of all three species. The inducible expression of soxB during tetrathionate oxidation, as well as the second leg of thiosulfate oxidation, by T. kashmirensis is significant because the current Sox pathway does not accommodate tetrathionate as one of its substrates. Notably, however, no other Sox protein except SoxB could be detected upon matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry analysis of all such T. kashmirensis proteins as appeared to be thiosulfate inducible in 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Instead, several other redox proteins were found to be at least 2-fold overexpressed during thiosulfate- or tetrathionate-dependent growth, thereby indicating that there is more to tetrathionate oxidation than SoxB alone.