Skip Navigation


Nucleic Acids Research Advance Access originally published online on June 11, 2009
Nucleic Acids Research 2009 37(14):4812-4825; doi:10.1093/nar/gkp509
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow Print PDF (5722K) Freely available
Right arrow Screen PDF (684K) Freely available
Right arrow Supplementary Data
Right arrowOA All Versions of this Article:
37/14/4812    most recent
gkp509v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Commercial Re-use Guidelines
for Open Access NAR Content
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by da Silva Neto, J. F.
Right arrow Articles by Marques, M. V.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by da Silva Neto, J. F.
Right arrow Articles by Marques, M. V.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Nucleic Acids Research, 2009, Vol. 37, No. 14 4812-4825
© 2009 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Gene Regulation, Chromatin and Epigenetics

Fur controls iron homeostasis and oxidative stress defense in the oligotrophic alpha-proteobacterium Caulobacter crescentus

José F. da Silva Neto, Vânia S. Braz, Valéria C. S. Italiani and Marilis V. Marques*

Departamento de Microbiologia, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes 1374, 05508-000 São Paulo, SP, Brazil

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +55 11 3091 7299; Fax: +55 11 3091 7354; Email: mvmarque{at}usp.br

Received March 4, 2009. Revised May 18, 2009. Accepted May 26, 2009.

In most bacteria, the ferric uptake regulator (Fur) is a global regulator that controls iron homeostasis and other cellular processes, such as oxidative stress defense. In this work, we apply a combination of bioinformatics, in vitro and in vivo assays to identify the Caulobacter crescentus Fur regulon. A C. crescentus fur deletion mutant showed a slow growth phenotype, and was hypersensitive to H2O2 and organic peroxide. Using a position weight matrix approach, several predicted Fur-binding sites were detected in the genome of C. crescentus, located in regulatory regions of genes not only involved in iron uptake and usage but also in other functions. Selected Fur-binding sites were validated using electrophoretic mobility shift assay and DNAse I footprinting analysis. Gene expression assays revealed that genes involved in iron uptake were repressed by iron-Fur and induced under conditions of iron limitation, whereas genes encoding iron-using proteins were activated by Fur under conditions of iron sufficiency. Furthermore, several genes that are regulated via small RNAs in other bacteria were found to be directly regulated by Fur in C. crescentus. In conclusion, Fur functions as an activator and as a repressor, integrating iron metabolism and oxidative stress response in C. crescentus.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.