title: The elusive roles of bacterial glutathione S-transferases: new lessons from genomes.
abstract: Glutathione S-transferases constitute a large family of enzymes which catalyze the addition of glutathione to endogenous or xenobiotic, often toxic electrophilic chemicals. Eukaryotic glutathione S-transferases usually promote the inactivation, degradation or excretion of a wide range of compounds by formation of the corresponding glutathione conjugates. In bacteria, by contrast, the few glutathione S-transferases for which substrates are known, such as dichloromethane dehalogenase, 1,2-dichloroepoxyethane epoxidase and tetrachlorohydroquinone reductase, are catabolic enzymes with an essential role for growth on recalcitrant chemicals. Glutathione S-transferase genes have also been found in bacterial operons and gene clusters involved in the degradation of aromatic compounds. Information from bacterial genome sequencing projects now suggests that glutathione S-transferases are present in large numbers in proteobacteria. In particular, the genomes of three Pseudomonas species each include at least ten different glutathione S-transferase genes. Several of the corresponding proteins define new classes of the glutathione S-transferase family and may also have novel functions that remain to be elucidated.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Mikrobiologie, ETH Zürich, Switzerland. vuilleumier@micro.biol.ethz.ch
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vuilleumier
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pagni
mesh_terms: D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D005982:Glutathione Transferase / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D020560:Proteobacteria / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D005982:Glutathione Transferase