Abstract:
Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (Xcc) is a gram negative and
obligated aerobic bacteria. It is an important phytopathogen which causes a black
rot disease in crucifer crops. During plant-pathogen interaction, plants generate
reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as H2O2, organic hydroperoxide and
superoxides which inhibit growth and cause lethality to bacterial pathogens. In
order to survive, the pathogen has evolved an array of defense mechanisms.
Peroxiredoxin (Prx) is a family of protein present in organisms from all kingdoms.
Its function is to protect cells from oxidative stress in a thiol-containing system. In
this study, a prx (XCC1046) in X. campestris pv. campestris was characterized
and its role against oxidative stress was determined. The expression pattern of prx
in response to various oxidants was evaluated using Northern blot analysis. The
result showed that prx expression can be induced by organic hydroperoxides
(cumene- and tert-butyl- hydroperoxides) and superoxide generators, menadione.
prx was co-transcribed with the downstream gene bfr encoding bacterioferritin.
Primer extension and RT-PCR experiments revealed that bfr also had its own
promoter that could be induced by oxidants. However, in the prx mutant the
expression of bfr was constitutively expressed at a relatively high level while high
expression of prx from plasmid containing functional prx in both wild type and
prx mutant strain reduced the expression of bfr. The expression of prx was not
regulated by known regulators including ohrR1, ohrR2, oxyR and soxR.
Inactivation of prx led to a reduction in resistance toward H2O2 but increased the
resistance toward superoxide generators such as menadione and plumbagin.
However, disruption of bfr increased the resistance toward superoxide generators,
organic hydroperoxides and H2O2 while the prx-bfr double mutant strain showed
no alteration in the resistance levels. High expression of prx-bfr (pPrxBfr) reduced
resistance to H2O2 while high expression of prx alone (pPrx) caused a reduction of
bacterial plating efficiency in wild type strain. Altogether, the data suggest the
complex role of prx and bfr in the oxidative stress response of Xcc and their
expressions have to be tightly regulated for proper physiological functioning