Title DRA0336, Another OxyR Homolog, Involved in the Antioxidation Mechanisms in Deinococcus radiodurans
Author Longfei Yin1, Liangyan Wang1, Huiming Lu1, Guangzhi Xu1, Huan Chen1,2, Hongdan Zhan1, Bing Tian1*, and Yuejin Hua1*
Address 1Key Laboratory for Nuclear-Agricultural Sciences of Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Zhejiang Province, Institute of Nuclear-Agricultural Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, P. R. China, 2Zhejiang Institute of Microbiology, Hangzhou 310027, P. R. China
Bibliography Journal of Microbiology, 48(4),473-479, 2010,
DOI
Key Words Deinococcus, OxyR, OxyR2, antioxidation mechanism, oxidative stress
Abstract A novel OxyR (DR0615) with one conserved cysteine that senses hydrogen peroxide in Deinococcus radiodurans had been identified in our previous work. Comparative genomics revealed that D. radiodurans possesses another OxyR homolog, OxyR2 (DRA0336). In this study, we constructed the deletion mutant of oxyR2 and the double mutant of both the OxyR homologs to investigate the role of OxyR in response to oxidative stress in D. radiodurans. Deletion of oxyR2 resulted in an obviously increased sensitivity to hydrogen peroxide, and the double mutant for oxyR and oxyR2 was significantly more sensitive than any of the two single mutants. The total catalase activity of the double mutant was lower than that of any of the single mutants, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulated to a greater extent. DNA microarray analysis further suggested that oxyR2 was involved in antioxidation mechanisms. Site-direct mutagenesis and complementation analysis revealed that C228 in OxyR2 was essential. This is the first report of the presence of two OxyR in one organism. These results suggest that D. radiodurans OxyR and OxyR2 function together to protect the cell against oxidative stress.