putida (Table 2). As the iron tolerance of single, double and triple mutants was not changed, the reduced iron resistance

of the quadruple mutant cannot be attributed to one particular locus and it rather indicates concert action of the ColR regulon genes. Analysis of zinc tolerance of strains devoid of multiple ColR-regulated genes showed that all strains lacking the PP0035-33 operon are slightly more sensitive to zinc, but no clear effect of other genes, with the exception of PP0900, could be recorded (Table 2). The detected MICs of all the strains for cadmium and manganese were similar to wild-type, Fosbretabulin ic50 indicating that none of the tested ColR regulon genes can significantly influence the tolerance

of P. putida to these metals (data not shown). Importantly, even though some mutant strains displayed lower MIC values of iron and zinc compared to wild-type, none of them was as impaired as the colR-deficient strain. This can be explained by the weak effect of any single ColR-regulated locus on metal tolerance, but it may also indicate that the ColR regulon identified so far is yet incomplete. Table 2 MICs of zinc and iron for P. putida parent strain PaW85 (wt) and different knockout strains Disrupted or deleted locus (product, putative function) ZnSO LGX818 mouse 4 FeSO 4 mM mM wt   5 5 colR   2 1.25 PP0035-PP0033 (LPS synthesis and modification) 4 5 PP0268 (porin OprE3) 5 5 PP0737 (PagL, LPS modification) 5 5 PP0900 (phospholipide metabolism) 5 5 PP0903-PP0905 (LPS modification) 5 5 PP1636 (DgkA, phospholipide metabolism) 5 5 PP2579 (CptA, LPS

modification) 5 5 PP5152 (hypothetical protein) 5 5 PP0035-PP0033, PP0900 4 5 PP0035-PP0033, PP0903-PP0905 4 5 PP0035-PP0033, PP2579 4 5 PP0903-PP0905, PP2579 4 5 PP0035-PP0033, PP2579, PP0903-PP0905 4 5 PP0035-PP0033, PP2579, PP0903-PP0905, PP0900 3.5 3 PP0035-PP0033, PP2579, PP0903-PP0905, PP5152 4 5 colR, PP0268 2 1.25 colR, PP0737 2 1.25 ColS possesses a putative iron binding motif in its periplasmic domain ColS is a canonical membrane kinase with two transmembrane domains connected by a 96 amino acid Megestrol Acetate periplasmic loop, which is most probably involved in signal recognition (Figure 5A). selleckchem Metal-sensing sites of proteins are composed of several metal-binding residues, which are most often glutamic acid, aspartic acid and histidine [47]. To predict the periplasmic amino acids that are putatively involved in metal sensing by ColS, we aligned the periplasmic regions of 47 annotated ColS orthologs represented in the Pseudomonas database [31]. From 96 putative periplasmic residues, 14 turned out to be conserved among all analyzed ColS proteins and four of these identical residues were glutamic acids in positions 38, 96, 126 and 129 (Figure 5 B and C).