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Lipid storage in high-altitude Andean Lakes extremophiles and its mobilization under stress conditions in Rhodococcus sp. A5, a UV-resistant actinobacterium

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Abstract

The production of triacylglycerols (TAG) or wax esters (WS) seems to be a widespread feature among extremophile bacteria living in high-altitude Andean Lakes (HAAL), Argentina. Twelve out of twenty bacterial strains isolated from HAAL were able to produce TAG or WS (between 2 and 17 % of cellular dry weight) under nitrogen-limiting culture conditions. Among these strains, the extremophile Rhodococcus sp. A5 accumulated significant amounts of TAG during growth on glucose (17 %, CDW) and hexadecane (32 %, CDW) as sole carbon sources. The role of accumulated TAG in the response to carbon starvation, osmotic stress, UV-radiation and desiccation was investigated in Rhodococcus sp. A5 using an inhibitor of TAG degradation. Cells degraded TAG during these stresses in the absence of the inhibitor. The inhibition of TAG mobilization affected cell survival during osmotic stress only during the initial growth stage. Little or no surviving cells were observed after carbon starvation, UV-treatment and desiccation, when TAG mobilization was inhibited. These results suggested that TAG metabolism is relevant for the adaptation and survival of A5 cells under carbon starvation, osmotic stress and UV irradiation, and essential under desiccation conditions, which prevail in HAAL environments.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the technical assistance of Enrique Rost for lipid analyses and to Lic. Mauro Marcinkevcius and Lic. Damian Gil for advancing on statistical analyses. This study was financially supported by the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica, Argentina (Project PICT 1221, 1788, 0778 and PICT-Redes 2006 N° 1707) and SCyT of the University of Patagonia San Juan Bosco. S.B.U. was recipient of a doctoral scholarship from ANPCyT, Argentina and actually from CONICET. H.M.A, M.E.F. and V.H.A. are researchers of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina. V.H.A is supported by a Marie Curie (FP7-UE) scholarship at the MPI-CEC. The authors gratefully acknowledge lab space and resources provided by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Gärtner at the MPI-CEC for the UV experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Centro Regional de Investigación Y Desarrollo Científico Tecnológico (CRIDECIT), Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco, Km 4-Ciudad Universitaria, 9000, Comodoro Rivadavia, Chubut, Argentina

    Susana Bequer Urbano & Héctor M. Alvarez

  2. Laboratorio de Investigaciones Microbiológicas de Lagunas Andinas (LIMLA), PROIMI Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Av. Belgrano y Pasaje Caseros, 4000, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina

    Virginia H. Albarracín, Omar F. Ordoñez & María E. Farías

  3. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, 4000, San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán, Argentina

    Virginia H. Albarracín

  4. Max-Planck-Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Stiftstrasse 34-36, 45470, Mülheim, Germany

    Virginia H. Albarracín

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  1. Susana Bequer Urbano
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  2. Virginia H. Albarracín
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  3. Omar F. Ordoñez
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  4. María E. Farías
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  5. Héctor M. Alvarez
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Correspondence to Héctor M. Alvarez.

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Communicated by A. Oren.

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Bequer Urbano, S., Albarracín, V.H., Ordoñez, O.F. et al. Lipid storage in high-altitude Andean Lakes extremophiles and its mobilization under stress conditions in Rhodococcus sp. A5, a UV-resistant actinobacterium. Extremophiles 17, 217–227 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-012-0508-2

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