A glutathione redox effect on photosynthetic membrane expression in Rhodospirillum rubrum

Anke Berit Carius, Marius Henkel, Hartmut Grammel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

The formation of intracytoplasmic photosynthetic membranes by facultative anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria has become a prime example for exploring redox control of gene expression in response to oxygen and light. Although a number of redox-responsive sensor proteins and transcription factors have been characterized in several species during the last several years in some detail, the overall understanding of the metabolic events that determine the cellular redox environment and initiate redox signaling is still poor. In the present study we demonstrate that in Rhodospirillum rubrum, the amount of photosynthetic membranes can be drastically elevated by external supplementation of the growth medium with the low-molecular-weight thiol glutathione. Neither the widely used reductant dithiothreitol nor oxidized glutathione caused the same response, suggesting that the effect was specific for reduced glutathione. By determination of the extracellular and intracellular glutathione levels, we correlate the GSH/GSSG redox potential to the expression level of photosynthetic membranes. Possible regulatory interactions with periplasmic, membrane, and cytosolic proteins are discussed. Furthermore, we found that R. rubrum cultures excrete substantial amounts of glutathione to the environment.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1893-1900
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Bacteriology
Volume193
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2011
Externally publishedYes

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