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Trimethylamine N-oxide metabolism by abundant marine heterotrophic bacteria
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Lidbury, Ian, Murrell, J. C. (J. Colin) and Chen, Yin (2014) Trimethylamine N-oxide metabolism by abundant marine heterotrophic bacteria. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Volume 111 (Number 7). pp. 2710-2715. doi:10.1073/pnas.1317834111
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1317834111
Abstract
Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) is a common osmolyte and has been detected at nanomolar concentrations in oceanic surface waters. TMAO can serve as an important nutrient for ecologically important particularly the SAR11 clade and marine Roseobacter clade (MRC). However, the enzymes responsible for TMAO catabolism and the membrane into microbial cells have yet to be identified. We show here that the enzyme, TMAO demethylase (Tdm), catalyses the first step in TMAO degradation. This enzyme represents a large group of proteins with an uncharacterized domain (DUF1989). The function of TMAO demethylase in a representative from the SAR11 clade (strain HIMB59) and in a representative of the MRC (Ruegeria pomeroyi DSS-3) was confirmed by heterologous expression of tdm (the gene encoding Tdm) in Escherichia coli. In Ruegeria pomeroyi, mutagenesis experiments confirmed that tdm is essential for growth on TMAO. We also identified a unique ABC transporter (TmoXWV) found in a variety of marine bacteria and experimentally confirmed its specificity for TMAO through marker exchange mutagenesis and lacZ reporter assays of the promoter for genes encoding this transporter. Both Tdm and TmoXWV are particularly abundant in natural seawater assemblages and actively expressed, as indicated by a number of recent metatranscriptomic and metaproteomic studies. These data suggest that TMAO represents a significant yet overlooked nutrient for marine bacteria.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | Q Science > QR Microbiology | ||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Science > Life Sciences (2010- ) | ||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Marine bacteria -- Physiology, Microbial metabolism, Amines | ||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | ||||
| Publisher: | National Academy of Sciences | ||||
| ISSN: | 0027-8424 | ||||
| Official Date: | 18 February 2014 | ||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | Volume 111 | ||||
| Number: | Number 7 | ||||
| Page Range: | pp. 2710-2715 | ||||
| DOI: | 10.1073/pnas.1317834111 | ||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||
| Funder: | Natural Environment Research Council (Great Britain) (NERC) | ||||
| Grant number: | NE/H016236/1 (NERC) |
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