School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Dec 3;110(49):19926-31. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1314529110. Epub 2013 Nov 18.
Global agricultural emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) have increased by around 20% over the last 100 y, but regulation of these emissions and their impact on bacterial cellular metabolism are poorly understood. Denitrifying bacteria convert nitrate in soils to inert di-nitrogen gas (N2) via N2O and the biochemistry of this process has been studied extensively in Paracoccus denitrificans. Here we demonstrate that expression of the gene encoding the nitrous oxide reductase (NosZ), which converts N2O to N2, is regulated in response to the extracellular copper concentration. We show that elevated levels of N2O released as a consequence of decreased cellular NosZ activity lead to the bacterium switching from vitamin B12-dependent to vitamin B12-independent biosynthetic pathways, through the transcriptional modulation of genes controlled by vitamin B12 riboswitches. This inhibitory effect of N2O can be rescued by addition of exogenous vitamin B12.
过去 100 年来,全球农业排放的温室气体氧化亚氮(N2O)增加了约 20%,但对这些排放物的监管及其对细菌细胞代谢的影响仍知之甚少。反硝化细菌通过 N2O 将土壤中的硝酸盐转化为惰性的双氮气体(N2),这个过程的生物化学在 Paracoccus denitrificans 中已经得到了广泛研究。在这里,我们证明了编码一氧化二氮还原酶(NosZ)的基因的表达受到细胞外铜浓度的调节,NosZ 将 N2O 转化为 N2。我们表明,由于细胞 NosZ 活性降低而释放出的高水平 N2O,导致细菌从依赖维生素 B12 转向依赖维生素 B12 的生物合成途径,这是通过维生素 B12 核糖开关控制的基因的转录调控实现的。通过添加外源维生素 B12 可以挽救 N2O 的这种抑制作用。