Molecular Factors of Hypochlorite Tolerance in the Hypersaline Archaeon Haloferax volcanii

Gomez, Miguel; Leung, Whinkie; Dantuluri, Swathi; Pillai, Alexander; Gani, Zyan; Hwang, Sungmin; McMillan, Lana J.; Kiljunen, Saija; Savilahti, Harri; Maupin-Furlow, Julie A.

doi:10.3390/genes9110562

Open AccessArticle

Molecular Factors of Hypochlorite Tolerance in the Hypersaline Archaeon Haloferax volcanii

by

Miguel Gomez

^1,†,

Whinkie Leung

^1,†,

Swathi Dantuluri

¹,

Alexander Pillai

¹,

Zyan Gani

¹,

Sungmin Hwang

¹,

Lana J. McMillan

^1,2,

Saija Kiljunen

³

,

Harri Savilahti

⁴ and

Julie A. Maupin-Furlow

^1,2,*

¹

Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA

²

Genetics Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA

³

Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, Immunobiology Research Program, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland

⁴

Division of Genetics and Physiology, Department of Biology, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

^†

These authors have contributed equally to this work.

Genes 2018, 9(11), 562; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes9110562

Submission received: 8 October 2018 / Revised: 7 November 2018 / Accepted: 13 November 2018 / Published: 20 November 2018

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetics of Halophilic Microorganisms)

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Abstract

Halophilic archaea thrive in hypersaline conditions associated with desiccation, ultraviolet (UV) irradiation and redox active compounds, and thus are naturally tolerant to a variety of stresses. Here, we identified mutations that promote enhanced tolerance of halophilic archaea to redox-active compounds using Haloferax volcanii as a model organism. The strains were isolated from a library of random transposon mutants for growth on high doses of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl), an agent that forms hypochlorous acid (HOCl) and other redox acid compounds common to aqueous environments of high concentrations of chloride. The transposon insertion site in each of twenty isolated clones was mapped using the following: (i) inverse nested two-step PCR (INT-PCR) and (ii) semi-random two-step PCR (ST-PCR). Genes that were found to be disrupted in hypertolerant strains were associated with lysine deacetylation, proteasomes, transporters, polyamine biosynthesis, electron transfer, and other cellular processes. Further analysis revealed a ΔpsmA1 (α1) markerless deletion strain that produces only the α2 and β proteins of 20S proteasomes was hypertolerant to hypochlorite stress compared with wild type, which produces α1, α2, and β proteins. The results of this study provide new insights into archaeal tolerance of redox active compounds such as hypochlorite.

Keywords: archaea; oxidative stress; hypochlorite; redox-active; proteasome

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MDPI and ACS Style

Gomez, M.; Leung, W.; Dantuluri, S.; Pillai, A.; Gani, Z.; Hwang, S.; McMillan, L.J.; Kiljunen, S.; Savilahti, H.; Maupin-Furlow, J.A. Molecular Factors of Hypochlorite Tolerance in the Hypersaline Archaeon Haloferax volcanii. Genes 2018, 9, 562. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes9110562

AMA Style

Gomez M, Leung W, Dantuluri S, Pillai A, Gani Z, Hwang S, McMillan LJ, Kiljunen S, Savilahti H, Maupin-Furlow JA. Molecular Factors of Hypochlorite Tolerance in the Hypersaline Archaeon Haloferax volcanii. Genes. 2018; 9(11):562. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes9110562

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gomez, Miguel, Whinkie Leung, Swathi Dantuluri, Alexander Pillai, Zyan Gani, Sungmin Hwang, Lana J. McMillan, Saija Kiljunen, Harri Savilahti, and Julie A. Maupin-Furlow. 2018. "Molecular Factors of Hypochlorite Tolerance in the Hypersaline Archaeon Haloferax volcanii" Genes 9, no. 11: 562. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes9110562

APA Style

Gomez, M., Leung, W., Dantuluri, S., Pillai, A., Gani, Z., Hwang, S., McMillan, L. J., Kiljunen, S., Savilahti, H., & Maupin-Furlow, J. A. (2018). Molecular Factors of Hypochlorite Tolerance in the Hypersaline Archaeon Haloferax volcanii. Genes, 9(11), 562. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes9110562

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Molecular Factors of Hypochlorite Tolerance in the Hypersaline Archaeon Haloferax volcanii

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