In this respect, the AoxB large subunit contains a Mo site required in arsenite oxidase enzymatic activity [22]. Cyclopamine order Ha3437

(modC) and Ha3438 (modB) mutations were located in the molybdenum high-affinity transport system operon, which further support the key role of this element in enzyme activity. In addition, the recovery of As(III) oxidase activity in these two mutants in the presence of an excess molybdenum suggests that Mo may also be transported through an alternative uptake system in mod mutants, e.g. a low-affinity uptake system involving non specific permeases such as HEAR0069, HEAR0154, HEAR1749 or HEAR2391 or a sulfate transport system, as described in E. coli mod mutants [23]. Figure 7 Conceptual representation of the complex arsenite oxidation process in H. arsenicoxydans. Several major control mechanisms are involved: A. a transcriptional regulation: AoxS acts as a sensor of As(III) environmental signal and then phosphorylates AoxR. The phosphorylated AoxR binds to RpoN, which interacts with RNA polymerase. The RpoN-RNA polymerase complex with its AoxR co-activator initiates the aox operon transcription. DnaJ may regulate aox mRNA stability

or act on the folding of AoxR or σ54; B. Then, arsenite oxidase is synthesized and exported by the TAT secretion system; C. consequently, arsenite oxidase exerts a key role in arsenic detoxification, by the transformation of the more toxic form

As(III) into a less toxic form As(V). This process is known to affect motility, which may involve a MCP see more chemotaxis protein and requires the DnaJ co-chaperone. IM= Inner C59 research buy Membrane, OM= Outer membrane. More importantly, our results suggest that AoxR and RpoN constitute a transcriptional complex that play a major role in the initiation of aoxAB operon transcription. Three mutants, i.e. Ha482 (aoxS), Ha483 (aoxR) and Ha3109 (rpoN), were affected in this process. The amino acids sequence analysis of H. arsenicoxydans AoxR and AoxS revealed the existence in these proteins of structural features common to partners of two-component signal transduction systems, which are composed of a sensor kinase and a response regulator [24]. Moreover, the comparison of AoxS and AoxR protein sequences with those of A. tumefaciens revealed similarities. Indeed, the AoxS protein sequence contains short blocks of conserved motifs that are consistent with a role of sensor histidine kinase, e.g. the “”H”" (amino acids 279 to 287: LAHEVNNPL), the “”G2″” (amino acids 435 to 441: GRIGLGL) and the “”N”" (amino acids 380 to 391: VRQIVLNLVLNA) domains. In addition, four highly invariant residues playing a central role in phosphorylation correspond to Asp9, Asp10, Asp57 and Lys107 in the H. arsenicoxydans AoxR protein.