Involvement of the cbb3-Type Terminal Oxidase in Growth Competition of Bacteria, Biofilm Formation, and in Switching between Denitrification and Aerobic Respiration

Kučera, Igor; Sedláček, Vojtěch

Involvement of the cbb3-Type Terminal Oxidase in Growth Competition of Bacteria, Biofilm Formation, and in Switching between Denitrification and Aerobic Respiration

2020

Kučera, Igor | Sedláček, Vojtěch

Paracoccus denitrificans has a branched electron transport chain with three terminal oxidases transferring electrons to molecular oxygen, namely aa₃-type and cbb₃-type cytochrome c oxidases and ba₃-type ubiquinol oxidase. In the present study, we focused on strains expressing only one of these enzymes. The competition experiments showed that possession of cbb₃-type oxidase confers significant fitness advantage during oxygen-limited growth and supports the biofilm lifestyle. The aa₃-type oxidase was shown to allow rapid aerobic growth at a high oxygen supply. Activity of the denitrification pathway that had been expressed in cells grown anaerobically with nitrate was fully inhibitable by oxygen only in wild-type and cbb₃ strains, while in strains aa₃ and ba₃ dinitrogen production from nitrate and oxygen consumption occurred simultaneously. Together, the results highlight the importance of the cbb₃-type oxidase for the denitrification phenotype and suggest a way of obtaining novel bacterial strains capable of aerobic denitrification.

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