Htin's lectures Flashcards
outline hierarchical use of electron acceptors in e. coli?
e. coli have different electron acceptors for different oxygen concentrations
oxygen is the preferred one cause produces the most energy
how do bacteria and humans differ metabolically?
higher eukaryotes much more metabolically inflexible because we employ:
- heterotrophic electron donors (sugars, aa’s, fats)
- oxygen as sole terminal electron acceptor
- fermentation transiently and products must be recycles
so e. coli more metabolically flexible cause can switch electron acceptor
discuss the metabolic flexibility of bacteria in the context of e. coli?
e. coli employs:
- diverse organic and inorganic electron donors
- oxygen and anaerobic electron acceptors
- fermentation as terminal, sustained mode of energy gen
this flexibility enables e. coli to adapt to a much wider range of environments e.g. aerobic, microaerobic, anaerobic
what are the four types of metabolism in e. coli?
aerobic respiration
microaerobic respiration
anaerobic respiration
fermentation
what are the key enzymes and electron acceptor during aerobic respiration in e. coli?
electron acceptor; O2 –> H2O
key enzyme: cytochrome bo oxidase
what are the key enzymes and electron acceptor during microaerobic respiration in e. coli?
electron acceptor: O2 –> H2O
key enzyme: cytochrome bd oxidase
what are the key enzymes and electron acceptor during anaerobic respiration in e. coli?
electron acceptor/s:
NO3- –> NO2-
NO2- –> NH4+
fumarate –> succinate
DMSO –> DMS
TMAO –> TMA
key enzymes:
nitrate reductase
nitrite reductase
fumarate reductase
DMSO reductase
TMAO reductase
what are the key enzymes and electron acceptor during fermentation in e. coli?
electron acceptor/s:
pyruvate –> lactate
formate –> H2 + CO2
key enzymes:
lactate dehydrogenase
formate hydrogenlyase
what is the max ATP yield during aerobic respiration?
with oxygen as terminal e- acceptor (during high pO2) you get 38 ATP per mol glucose
this comes first in order of preferred e- acceptor
what is the max ATP yield during microaerobic respiration?
with oxygen as terminal e- acceptor (at low pO2) you get 15 ATP per mol glucose
this comes second in order of preference
what is the max ATP yield during anaerobic respiration?
with nitrate as terminal e- acceptor you get 15 ATP per mol glucose
with fumarate as terminal e- acceptor you get 12 ATP per mol glucose
so these come 3rd and 4th in order of preferred e- acceptors
what is the max ATP yield during fermentation?
with acetyl- as terminal e- acceptor you get 3 ATP per mol glucose
so this comes 5th in order of preference
why is ATP yield much less during fermentation than any form of respiration?
during respiration ATP yield greatly enhanced through oxidative phosphorylation (respiratory e- yields coupled to pmf generation)
during fermentation ATP can only be produced through substrate-level phosphorylation (direct transfer of phospho groups during glycolysis)
discuss how utilisation of electron acceptors is hierarchical?
most electropositive e acceptor yields greatest amount of energy
sequence used by e coli:
- aerobic resp
- microaerobic resp
- nitrate resp
- fumarate resp
- fermentation
hierarchical control depends on regulation of transcription of metabolic enzymes and terminal reductases in response to signals
discuss the signals and regulators responsible for controlling hierarchical electron acceptor utilisation?
low quinone signals low redox state; ArcBA is regulator which represses aerobic resp and activates microaerobic resp
no O2 signals anoxic conditions; FNR represses microaerobic resp and activates anaerobic resp
high nitrate signals presence of e acceptors; NarLP and NarPQ repress alternate modes of anaerobic respiration and activate nitrate respiration
high formate signals absence of e acceptors; FhlA activates fermentation
regulatory systems are carefully integrated to ensure what?
coordinated control and impose metabolic priorities
what is ArcBA and what does it regulate?
non-classical two-component system comprising a histidine kinase (ArcB) and response regulator (ArcA)
ArcBA the central regulator during initial response to hypoxia - regulates shift to microaerobic respiration
controls 9% of genome directly or indirectly; represses aerobic respiration enzymes, upregulates microaerobic respiration enzymes
how was the Arc system discovered?
by genetic screen
under anaerobic conditions succinate dehydrogenase is on but switched off under microaerobic cond
mutants that failed to anaerobically repress succinate dehydrogenase were isolated and ArcA identified as anaerobic repressor
discuss the structure of ArcB in the context of its domains and phosphotransfer?
ArcB is a membrane bound histidine kinase; phosphorelay increases affinity for target
transmembrane domain: two helices enable membrane-association
leucine zipper domain: dimerisation through alpha-helix interactions
PAS domain: enables redox-sensing via cysteine residues
1st transmitter domain: autophos his292 res through ATP binding
1st receiver domain: phosphotransfer from his292 to asp576
2nd transmitter domain: phosphotransfer from asp576 to his717
discuss the structure of ArcA in the context of its domains and phosphotransfer?
ArcA is response regulator activated by phos at asp54
2nd receiver domain: phosphotransfer from his717 of ArcB
helix-turn-helix domain: binds specific promoter sequences to control transcription
phosphorylated ArcA can specifically bind to promoter sequences as a multimer of dimers
discuss the phosphorelay system contained in the ArcBA system?
unlike classical TCS, phosphoryl groups transferred through his292-asp576-his717-asp54 relay for ArcA to activate
the reverse phosphotase relay also occurs during signal decay
how is ArcA both a repressor and an activator?
is a global regulator of carbon oxidation
recognises unusual 15bp consensus including two repeats
binding site generally overlaps -10/-35 regions in repressed genes (blocking RNAP), but is upstream in activated genes (prob recruiting RNAP)
what does ArcA do when it is on?
modulates the shift from aerobic to microaerobic respiration
it does this by repressing cytochrome bo oxidase and activating cytochrome bd oxidase
what genes does ArcA repress?
cytochrome bo oxidase
succinate dehydrogenase
lactate dehydrogenase
amino acid dehydrogenases
what genes does ArcA activate?
cytochrome bd oxidase
hydrogenase-1
ArcA (positive feedback loop)
why is ArcA controlled switching of terminal oxidases from cytochrome bo to cytochrome bd central to its response?
it ensures continued respiratory flow when pO2 low
cytochrome bo has low oxygen affinity but is fine when high pO2; cytochrome bd has high oxygen affinity so better in low pO2; trade off is that cytochrome bd makes less energy due to being proton-nontranslocating
so ArcA is a repressor for cyt bo and an activator for cyt bd
what is the signal activating ArcB?
ArcB must respond to signal that decreases its autophos activity as otherwise target genes would always be repressed
responds to membrane-associated signal; evidence for this is that membrane-detached ArcB constitutively on
further studies showed that quinones are the ArcB signal
how was it found that quinones are the signal for ArcB?
ArcB was purified and this showed it was autophos
so they did autoradiograms of P-ATP so measure autophos of ArcB and showed activity decreased by oxidised ubiquinone but not by ubiquinol (reduced)
thus e coli quinones (ubiquinone, menaquinone) repress ArcB during aerobic growth and quinones in diff states are the signal for ArcB to switch on/off