title: A novel cyanide-inducible gene cluster helps protect Pseudomonas aeruginosa from cyanide.
abstract: Pseudomonas aeruginosa produces the toxic secondary metabolite hydrogen cyanide (HCN) at high cell population densities and low aeration. Here, we investigated the impact of HCN as a signal in cell-cell communication by comparing the transcriptome of the wild-type strain PAO1 to that of an HCN-negative mutant under cyanogenic conditions. HCN repressed four genes and induced 12 genes. While the individual functions of these genes are unknown, with one exception (i.e. a ferredoxin-dependent reductase), a highly inducible six-gene cluster (PA4129-PA4134) was found to be crucial for protection of P. aeruginosa from external HCN intoxication. A double mutant deleted for PA4129-PA4134 and cioAB (encoding cyanide-insensitive oxidase) did not grow with 100 μM KCN, whereas the corresponding single mutants were essentially unaffected, suggesting a synergistic action of the PA4129-PA4134 gene products and cyanide-insensitive oxidase.
authors.affiliation: Département de Microbiologie Fondamentale, Université de Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Emanuela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Frangipani
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Pérez-Martínez
authors.forename: Huw D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Gaëtan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cherbuin
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Haas
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D006856:Hydrogen Cyanide / Q000378:metabolism*; D005810:Multigene Family; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D006856:Hydrogen Cyanide