Structural Insight into the Gene Expression Profiling of the hcn Operon in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

• Published in: Applied biochemistry and biotechnology Vol. 182; no. 3; pp. 1144 - 1157
• Main Authors: Chowdhury, Nilkanta, Bagchi, Angshuman
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.07.2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; AIDS; Anaerobic conditions; ANR protein; Bacteria; Bacterial Proteins - genetics; Bacterial Proteins - metabolism; Biochemistry; Biotechnology; Cancer; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Clusters; Coding; Construction; Cystic fibrosis; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Dimerization; DNA; Gene expression; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial - physiology; Genes; Humans; Iron; Mathematical models; Nucleotide sequence; Operon - physiology; Opportunist infection; Pathogens; Patients; Promoter Regions, Genetic - physiology; Proteins; Pseudomonas; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Pseudomonas aeruginosa - genetics; Pseudomonas aeruginosa - metabolism; Regulators; RhlR protein; Sulfur; Trans-Activators - genetics; Trans-Activators - metabolism; Transcription; Transcription, Genetic - physiology; Virulence; Virulence factors; Yeast; DNA-protein interactions; Molecular docking simulations; Molecular modeling; operon; ANR protein; hcnABC operon
• ISSN: 0273-2289; 1559-0291
• DOI: 10.1007/s12010-016-2388-x

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common opportunistic human pathogen. It generally attacks immunosuppressed patients like AIDS, cancer, cystic fibrosis, etc. The virulence of P. aeruginosa is mediated by various virulence factors. One of such potential virulence factors is HCN synthesized by HCN synthase enzyme, which is encoded by the hcnABC operon. The expressions of the genes of this operon are regulated by three transcriptional regulators, viz., LasR, ANR, and RhlR. In our previous work, we analyzed the molecular details of the functionalities of LasR. In this work, we focused on ANR. ANR is a regulatory protein which belongs to the FNR family and works in anaerobic condition. ANR binds to the promoter DNA, named ANR box, as a dimer. The dimerization of this ANR protein is regulated by Fe 4 S 4 , an iron-sulfur cluster. This dimer of ANR (ANR-Fe 4 S 4 /ANR-Fe 4 S 4 ) recognizes and binds the promoter DNA sequence and regulates the transcription of this hcnABC operon. Till date, the biomolecular details of the interactions of ANR dimer with the promoter DNA are not fully understood. Thus, we built the molecular model of ANR-Fe 4 S 4 /ANR-Fe 4 S 4 . We docked the complex with the corresponding promoter DNA region. We analyzed the mode of interactions with the promoter DNA under different conditions. Thus, we tried to analyze the functionality of the ANR protein during the expressions of the genes of the hcnABC operon. So far, this is the first report to detail the molecular mechanism of the gene expression in P. aeruginosa .