Evidence for Involvement of Copper Ions and Redox State in Regulation of Butane Monooxygenase in Pseudomonas butanovora

Pseudomonas butanovora possesses an alcohol-inducible alkane monooxygenase, butane monooxygenase (BMO), that initiates growth on C2 -C9 alkanes. AlacZ transcriptional reporter strain,P. butanovora bmoX ::lacZ , in which the BMO promoter controls the expression of β-galactosidase activity, was used to show that 1-butanol induced the BMO promoter in the presence or absence of O2 when lactate-grown, BMO-repressed cells were washed free of lactate and incubated in NH4 Cl-KNa phosphate buffer. In contrast, when lactate-grown cells of the reporter strain were incubated in phosphate buffer containing the mineral salts of standard growth medium, 1-butanol-dependent induction was significantly repressed at low O2 (1 to 2% [vol/vol]) and totally repressed under anoxic conditions. The repressive effect of the mineral salts was traced to its copper content. In cells exposed to 1% (vol/vol) O2 , CuSO4 (0.5 μM) repressed 1-butanol-dependent induction of β-galactosidase activity. Under oxic conditions (20% O2 [vol/vol]), significantly higher concentrations of CuSO4 (2 μM) were required for almost complete repression of induction in lactate-grown cells. A combination of the Cu2+ reducing agent Na ascorbate (100 μM) and CuSO4 (0.5 μM) repressed the induction of β-galactosidase activity under oxic conditions to the same extent that 0.5 μM CuSO4 alone repressed it under anoxic conditions. Under oxic conditions, 2 μM CuSO4 repressed induction of the BMO promoter less effectively in butyrate-grown cells of thebmoX ::lacZ strain and of an R8-bmoX ::lacZ mutant reporter strain with a putative BMO regulator, BmoR, inactivated. Under anoxic conditions, CuSO4 repression remained highly effective, regardless of the growth substrate, in both BmoR-positive and -negative reporter strains.