Inactivation of the Pseudomonas putida cytochrome o ubiquinol oxidase leads to a significant change in the transcriptome and to increased expression of the CIO and cbb3-1 terminal oxidases.

Pseudomonas putida KT2440 contains a branched aerobic respiratory chain with several terminal oxidases. Inactivation of the cyo terminal ubiquinol oxidase has little effect on growth rate but is known to relieve the inhibition by global control that modulates induction of genes required to assimilate alkanes in cells growing in the presence of preferred carbon sources. We show that inactivation of other terminal oxidases has no effect on regulation of the alkane degradation pathway, which points to cyo as the oxidase that transmits a regulatory signal related to the activity of the electron transport chain. Using a genome-wide DNA microarray we found that inactivation of cyo has a significant effect on the transcriptome, supporting that it participates in global regulation of gene expression. Among the genes affected stand out those coding for transporters of organic acids, porins, transcriptional regulators and terminal oxidases. Real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) showed that, in cells growing exponentially in a complete medium, the absence of cyo was compensated by increased expression of the cyanide-insensitive and cbb3-1 terminal oxidases, while cbb3-2 and aa3 oxidases remained unaffected. When cells enter into stationary phase cyo levels decrease and inhibition of the alkane degradation genes ceases. This was paralleled by upregulation of the cyanide-insensitive, cbb3-1, cbb3-2 and aa3 terminal oxidases. The results suggest that P. putida adapts the composition of the electron transport chain not only to optimize energy generation, but also to influence the transcriptome profile of the cell through global control of gene expression.