Efficient and specific bioaccumulation of arsenic in the transgenic Escherichia coli expressing ArsR1 from Corynebacterium glutamicum.

The toxic nature of arsenic has left a trail of disastrous health consequences around the world. Microorganisms have developed various strategies to deal with arsenic. The presence of plasmid and chromosomal ars operons is one of the most important mechanisms for the detoxification of arsenic in bacteria. ArsR is a trans-acting regulatory protein and acts as a repressor on ars operon. The gene encoding ArsR from Corynebacterium glutamicum (CgArsR1) was cloned in expression vectors pET28a. The resulting constructs were transformed into Escherichia coli strains Rosetta (DE3) and Rosetta gami 2. Following the induction with Isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside, the protein His-CgArsR1 was found in the soluble fraction of strain Rg-CgArsR1. For comparison, ArsR from E. coli was also overexpressed in E. coli (strain Rosetta gami 2) as His-EcArsR. A strain containing empty vector pET28a was also used as a control strain. In the medium containing either arsenite (0.5 mM) or arsenate (0.5 mM), the strain Rg-CgArsR1 and Rg-EcArsR were able to accumulate 1200 and 700 µg/g DCW As3+, respectively. In comparison, the accumulation of As5+ in these strains was 338 and 232 µg/g DCW, respectively. Whereas both strains Rg-CgArsR1 and Rg-EcArsR were able to accumulate higher amounts of As3+ and As5+ with respect to control strain, the accumulation of arsenic in the strain Rg-CgArsR1 was significantly more efficient than strain Rg-EcArsR for removing As3+ and As5+. Based on the results the gene encoding CgArsR1 is a useful and efficient target gene for the modification of bacteria for bioremediation of arsenic from polluted soil and water.