The inability of Bacillus licheniformis perR mutant to grow is mainly due to the lack of PerR-mediated fur repression

PerR, a member of Fur family protein, is a metal-dependent H₂O₂ sensing transcription factor that regulates genes involved in peroxide stress response. Industrially important bacterium Bacillus licheniformis contains three PerR-like proteins (PerRBL, PerR2, and PerR3) compared to its close relative Bacillus subtilis. Interestingly, unlike other bacteria including B. subtilis, no authentic perR BL null mutant could be established for B. licheniformis. Thus, we constructed a conditional perR BL mutant using a xylose-inducible promoter, and investigated the genes under the control of PerRBL. PerRBL regulon genes include katA, mrgA, ahpC, pfeT, hemA, fur, and perR as observed for PerRBS. However, there is some variation in the expression levels of fur and hemA genes between B. subtilis and B. licheniformis in the derepressed state. Furthermore, katA, mrgA, and ahpC are strongly induced, whereas the others are only weakly or not induced by H₂O₂ treatment. In contrast to the B. subtilis perR null mutant which frequently gives rise to large colony phenotype mainly due to the loss of katA, the suppressors of B. licheniformis perR mutant, which can form colonies on LB agar, were all catalase-positive. Instead, many of the suppressors showed increased levels of siderophore production, suggesting that the suppressor mutation is linked to the fur gene. Consistent with this, perR fur double mutant could grow on LB agar without Fe supplementation, whereas perR katA double mutant could only grow on LB agar with Fe supplementation. Taken together, our data suggest that in B. licheniformis, despite the similarity in PerRBL and PerRBS regulon genes, perR is an essential gene required for growth and that the inability of perR null mutant to grow is mainly due to elevated expression of Fur.