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Cytochrome bd confers nitric oxide resistance to Escherichia coli

Nature Chemical Biology volume 5, pages 94–96 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

The aerobic respiratory chain of Escherichia coli has two terminal quinol oxidases: cytochrome bo and cytochrome bd. Cytochrome bd was thought to function solely to facilitate micro-aerobic respiration. However, it has recently been shown to be overexpressed under conditions of nitric oxide (NO) stress; we show here that cytochrome bd is crucial for protecting E. coli cells from NO-induced growth inhibition by virtue of its fast NO dissociation rate.

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Figure 1: Nitric oxide and oxygen sensitivity of cytochromes bo and bd in E.coli.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Wellcome Trust (069769) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/D017858/1) for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, UK

    Maria G Mason, Peter Nicholls, Paul S Dobbin & Chris E Cooper

  2. Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, The University of Sheffield, Firth Court, Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK

    Mark Shepherd, Kathryn S Dodsworth & Robert K Poole

Authors
  1. Maria G Mason
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  2. Mark Shepherd
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  3. Peter Nicholls
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  4. Paul S Dobbin
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  5. Kathryn S Dodsworth
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  6. Robert K Poole
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  7. Chris E Cooper
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Contributions

M.G.M., P.S.D. and C.E.C. designed the experiments; M.G.M., M.S. and K.S.D. performed the experiments; M.G.M., M.S., P.N., K.S.D., R.K.P. and C.E.C. analyzed the data; and M.G.M., M.S., R.K.P. and C.E.C. wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria G Mason.

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Supplementary Figures 1–3 and Supplementary Methods (PDF 383 kb)

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Mason, M., Shepherd, M., Nicholls, P. et al. Cytochrome bd confers nitric oxide resistance to Escherichia coli. Nat Chem Biol 5, 94–96 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.135

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