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Anaerobiosis inhibits gas vesicle formation in halophilic Archaea
Author(s) -
Hechler Torsten,
Pfeifer Felicitas
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
molecular microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.857
H-Index - 247
eISSN - 1365-2958
pISSN - 0950-382X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2008.06517.x
Subject(s) - haloferax volcanii , halobacterium salinarum , vesicle , biology , archaea , biochemistry , halophile , halobacteriaceae , bacteria , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , genetics , membrane
Summary The effect of anaerobiosis on the gas vesicle formation was investigated in three Halobacterium salinarum strains, Haloferax mediterranei and in Haloferax volcanii transformants . All these strains significantly reduced gas vesicle formation or lacked these structures under anoxic conditions. When grown by arginine fermentation, Hbt. salinarum PHH4 lacked gas vesicles, whereas Hbt. salinarum PHH1 and NRC‐1 contained 5–20 small gas vesicles arranged in two to three aggregates per cell instead of the 30–80 gas vesicles present under oxic conditions. The enlargement presumably stopped due to a depletion of Gvp proteins. Also Hfx. mediterranei and Hfx. volcanii transformants lacked gas vesicles under anoxic growth and yielded a 10‐fold reduced gvp transcription. Even the gas vesicle‐overproducing ΔD transformants did not form gas vesicles under anoxic conditions, demonstrating that the repressing protein GvpD was not involved. The presence of large amounts of GvpA implied that the assembly of the gas vesicles was inhibited. When Hbt. salinarum PHH1 and NRC‐1 were grown with dimethyl sulphoxide or trimethylamine N ‐oxid under anoxic conditions the number but not the size of gas vesicles was reduced. This was in contrast to the previously reported overproduction of gas vesicles in NRC‐1 that turned out to depend on the citrate‐containing medium used for growth.