OhrR Is a Repressor of ohrA, a Key Organic Hydroperoxide Resistance Determinant in Bacillus subtilis

Bacillus subtilis displays a complex adaptive response to the presence of reactive oxygen species. To date, most proteins that protect against reactive oxygen species are members of the peroxide-inducible PerR and ς(B) regulons. We investigated the function of two B. subtilis homologs of the Xanthomonas campestris organic hydroperoxide resistance (ohr) gene. Mutational analyses indicate that both ohrA and ohrB contribute to organic peroxide resistance in B. subtilis, with the OhrA protein playing the more important role in growing cells. Expression of ohrA, but not ohrB, is strongly and specifically induced by organic peroxides. Regulation of ohrA requires the convergently transcribed gene, ohrR, which encodes a member of the MarR family of transcriptional repressors. In an ohrR mutant, ohrA expression is constitutive, whereas expression of the neighboring ohrB gene is unaffected. Selection for mutant strains that are derepressed for ohrA transcription identifies a perfect inverted repeat sequence that is required for OhrR-mediated regulation and likely defines an OhrR binding site. Thus, B. subtilis contains at least three regulons (ς(B), PerR, and OhrR) that contribute to peroxide stress responses

Cold Shock Proteins of Lactococcus lactis MG1363 Are Involved in Cryoprotection and in the Production of Cold-Induced Proteins

Members of the group of 7-kDa cold-shock proteins (CSPs) are the proteins with the highest level of induction upon cold shock in the lactic acid bacterium Lactococcus lactis MG1363. By using double-crossover recombination, two L. lactis strains were generated in which genes encoding CSPs are disrupted: L. lactis NZ9000ΔAB lacks the tandemly orientated cspA and cspB genes, and NZ9000ΔABE lacks cspA, cspB, and cspE. Both strains showed no differences in growth at normal and at low temperatures compared to that of the wild-type strain, L. lactis NZ9000. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis showed that upon disruption of the cspAB genes, the production of remaining CspE at low temperature increased, and upon disruption of cspA, cspB, and cspE, the production of CspD at normal growth temperatures increased. Northern blot analysis showed that control is most likely at the transcriptional level. Furthermore, it was established by a proteomics approach that some (non-7-kDa) cold-induced proteins (CIPs) are not cold induced in the csp-lacking strains, among others the histon-like protein HslA and the signal transduction protein LlrC. This supports earlier observations (J. A. Wouters, M. Mailhes, F. M. Rombouts, W. M. De Vos, O. P. Kuipers, and T. Abee, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 66:3756–3763, 2000). that the CSPs of L. lactis might be directly involved in the production of some CIPs upon low-temperature exposure. Remarkably, the adaptive response to freezing by prior exposure to 10°C was significantly reduced in strain NZ9000ΔABE but not in strain NZ9000ΔAB compared to results with wild-type strain NZ9000, indicating a notable involvement of CspE in cryoprotection