Microarray-mediated transcriptome analysis of the tributyltin (TBT)-resistant bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa 25W in the presence of TBT.

The tributyltin (TBT)-resistant bacterium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa 25W, which was isolated in seawater from the Arabian Sea, was subjected to transcriptome analysis in the presence of high concentrations of TBT. Only slight effects were observed at TBT concentration of 50 microM, but exposure to 500 microM resulted in the upregulation of 6 genes and the downregulation of 75. Among the 75 downregulated genes, 53% (40 out of 75) were of hypothetical function, followed by 14 transcriptional regulation- and translation-associated genes. The results of this study indicated that although the 25W strain was highly resistant to TBT, high concentrations of TBT result in toxic effect on the transcriptional and translational levels. The target genes likely belong to a specific category of transcription- and translation-associated genes rather than to other gene categories.