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Exploring the diversity of arsenic resistance genes from acid mine drainage microorganisms
Author(s) -
Morgante Verónica,
Mirete Salvador,
Figueras Carolina G.,
Postigo Cacho Marina,
GonzálezPastor José E.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
environmental microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.954
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1462-2920
pISSN - 1462-2912
DOI - 10.1111/1462-2920.12505
Subject(s) - biology , gene , arsenic , microorganism , arsenate , biosynthesis , biochemistry , metagenomics , rna , genetics , bacteria , microbiology and biotechnology , materials science , metallurgy
Summary The microbial communities from the T into R iver, a natural acid mine drainage environment, were explored to search for novel genes involved in arsenic resistance using a functional metagenomic approach. Seven pentavalent arsenate resistance clones were selected and analysed to find the genes responsible for this phenotype. Insights about their possible mechanisms of resistance were obtained from sequence similarities and cellular arsenic concentration. A total of 19 individual open reading frames were analysed, and each one was individually cloned and assayed for its ability to confer arsenic resistance in E scherichia coli cells. A total of 13 functionally active genes involved in arsenic resistance were identified, and they could be classified into different global processes: transport, stress response, DNA damage repair, phospholipids biosynthesis, amino acid biosynthesis and RNA ‐modifying enzymes. Most genes (11) encode proteins not previously related to heavy metal resistance or hypothetical or unknown proteins. On the other hand, two genes were previously related to heavy metal resistance in microorganisms. In addition, the ClpB chaperone and the RNA ‐modifying enzymes retrieved in this work were shown to increase the cell survival under different stress conditions (heat shock, acid pH and UV radiation). Thus, these results reveal novel insights about unidentified mechanisms of arsenic resistance.