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Physiological roles of mycothiol in detoxification and tolerance to multiple poisonous chemicals in Corynebacterium glutamicum

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Abstract

Mycothiol (MSH) plays important roles in maintaining cytosolic redox homeostasis and in adapting to reactive oxygen species in the high-(G + C)-content Gram-positive Actinobacteria. However, its physiological roles are ill defined compared to glutathione, the functional analog of MSH in Gram-negative bacteria and most eukaryotes. In this research, we explored the impact of intracellular MSH on cellular physiology by using MSH-deficient mutants in the model organism Corynebacterium glutamicum. We found that intracellular MSH contributes significantly to resistance to alkylating agents, glyphosate, ethanol, antibiotics, heavy metals and aromatic compounds. In addition, intracellular MSH is beneficial for withstanding oxidative stress induced by various oxidants in C. glutamicum. This study greatly expanded our current knowledge on the physiological functions of mycothiol in C. glutamicum and could be applied to improve the robustness of this scientifically and commercially important species in the future.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31170121, 31170100 and 31270078) and the Opening Project of State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resource, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. SKLMR-20120601).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas and College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Ying-Bao Liu, Mei-Ru Si, Lei Zhang, Yao Wang & Xi-Hui Shen

  2. College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Ming-Xiu Long

  3. Environmental Microbiology and Ecology Research Center, Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing, 401122, People’s Republic of China

    Ya-Jie Yin

  4. College of Plant Protection, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Zhi-Qiang Lu

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  1. Ying-Bao Liu
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Correspondence to Xi-Hui Shen.

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Communicated by Shuang-Jiang Liu.

Ying-Bao Liu and Ming-Xiu Long contributed equally to this work.

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Liu, YB., Long, MX., Yin, YJ. et al. Physiological roles of mycothiol in detoxification and tolerance to multiple poisonous chemicals in Corynebacterium glutamicum . Arch Microbiol 195, 419–429 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-013-0889-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-013-0889-3

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