Bartlett D, Wright M, Yayanos A A, Silverman M
The Agouron Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037.
Nature. 1989 Nov 30;342(6249):572-4. doi: 10.1038/342572a0.
Barophilic bacteria inhabit the deep oceans, and the specific functional modifications and regulatory mechanisms which govern adaptation to hydrostatic pressure are beginning to be understood. For example, the rate of production of several proteins by some hydrothermal vent archaebacteria and the degree of saturation of membrane lipids in other deep-sea bacteria have been found to change as a result of cultivation at high pressure. We report here the cloning of gene, ompH, which encodes a major pressure-inducible protein of strain SS9, a gram-negative eubacterium isolated from a depth of 2.5 kilometres in the Sulu Sea. Messenger RNA encoded by ompH is expressed when cells are grown at 280 atm but not at 1 atm, indicating that transcription of the ompH gene is controlled by hydrostatic pressure. The function of the OmpH protein in adaptation to high pressure and the use of the ompH gene in studying how bacteria sense and respond to pressure is discussed.
嗜压细菌栖息于深海，而控制其适应流体静压力的特定功能修饰和调节机制正逐渐为人所知。例如，已发现一些热液喷口古细菌产生几种蛋白质的速率以及其他深海细菌膜脂的饱和度会因在高压下培养而发生变化。我们在此报告基因ompH的克隆，该基因编码菌株SS9的一种主要压力诱导蛋白，SS9是从苏禄海2.5千米深处分离出的革兰氏阴性真细菌。当细胞在280个大气压下生长时，由ompH编码的信使核糖核酸会表达，而在1个大气压下则不表达，这表明ompH基因的转录受流体静压力控制。文中还讨论了OmpH蛋白在适应高压方面的功能以及利用ompH基因研究细菌如何感知和响应压力的情况。
