title: Expression and regulation of the antimonite, arsenite, and arsenate resistance operon of Staphylococcus xylosus plasmid pSX267.
abstract: The arsenate, arsenite, and antimonite resistance region of the Staphylococcus xylosus plasmid pSX267 was subcloned in Staphylococcus carnosus. The sequenced DNA region revealed three consecutive open reading frames, named arsR, arsB, and arsC. Expression studies in Escherichia coli with the bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase-promoter system yielded three polypeptides with apparent molecular weights of 8,000, 35,000, and 15,000, which very likely correspond to ArsR, ArsB, and ArsC, respectively. ArsB was distinguished by its overall hydrophobic character, suggesting a membrane association. The arsenate, arsenite, and antimonite resistance was shown to be inducible by all three heavy metal ions. Inactivation of the first gene, arsR, resulted in constitutive expression of resistance. Similar results were obtained with transcriptional fusions of various portions of the ars genes with a lipase reporter gene, indicating a function of ArsR as a negative regulator of a putative promoter in front of arsR. The inactivation of arsR also resulted in reduction of resistance to arsenite and antimonite, while arsenate resistance was unaffected. The three ars genes conferred arsenite resistance in E. coli and arsenite as well as arsenate resistance in Bacillus subtilis.
authors.affiliation: Mikrobielle Genetik, Universität Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rosenstein
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Peschel
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wieland
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Götz
mesh_terms: D000251:Adenosine Triphosphatases / Q000235:genetics; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000965:Antimony / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000966:Antimony Potassium Tartrate / Q000494:pharmacology; D001149:Arsenates / Q000494:pharmacology; D001151:Arsenic / Q000494:pharmacology*; D053501:Arsenite Transporting ATPases; D018053:Arsenites; D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000235:genetics; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D001483:Base Sequence; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial / Q000235:genetics*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D016623:Ion Pumps; D008049:Lipase / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009097:Multienzyme Complexes; D009876:Operon / Q000235:genetics; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011815:R Factors / Q000235:genetics; D013210:Staphylococcus / Q000235:genetics*; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000235:genetics; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: C489527:ArsR protein, E coli; D001149:Arsenates; D018053:Arsenites; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D016623:Ion Pumps; D009097:Multienzyme Complexes; D015534:Trans-Activators; D000965:Antimony; D000966:Antimony Potassium Tartrate; D008049:Lipase; D000251:Adenosine Triphosphatases; D053501:Arsenite Transporting ATPases; C015001:arsenite; D001151:Arsenic; C025657:arsenic acid