1. Introduction
The Nitrogen (N) and phosphate (P) are constitutive elements of all living cells since, with carbon (C), oxygen (O), hydrogen (H) and sulfur (S), these elements are necessary for the biosynthesis of building blocks (nucleotides and amino acids) used for the biosynthesis of cellular components such as nucleic acids, proteins, membranous phospholipids, cell wall peptidoglycan etc... However, the inorganic forms of N (ammonium, nitrates, nitrites…) and P are often scarce in the environment of most microorganisms and these elements are thus usually present in biological molecules such as nucleic acids, proteins, polyamines, lipids, cell wall resulting from plants or animal death. These macromolecules have to be extracellularly degraded into smaller compounds to be transported and assimilated by microorganisms. Alternatively, if external inorganic or organic N and P sources are scarce, the bacteria activates the degradation of its own biological molecules in order to re-cycle N and P present in the latter’s.
In this study, we assessed the content in lipids/triacylglycerol (TAG) and the level of production of the specialized metabolite, actinorhodin (ACT) of various strains derived from
S. coelicolor (
SC) M145 and grown in the classical medium R2YE. These strains were deleted for genes encoding proteins involved in the degradation of proteins (Pup/ SCO1646) [
1,
2] or polyamines (GlnA2/SCO2241, GlnA3/SCO6962, GlnA4/SCO1613) [
3,
4,
5,
6,
7] as well as others genes involved in nitrogen metabolism (
glnA/sco2198,
glnII/sco2210, nnar/sco2958,
gdhA/sco4683) or its regulation (
glnR/sco4159,
glnRII/sco2213, glnK/sco5584, glnE/sco2234, glnD/sco5585 and the double mutants
afsQ1/sco4907&
afsQ2/sco4906 and
amtB/sco5583&
glnK/sco5584) and of strains derived from
S. coelicolor M600 and deleted for genes encoding the global regulator DasR/SCO5231 [
8] that controls negatively the expression of proteins involved in the up-take of N acetylglucosamine (NAG) [
9], a component of peptidoglycan, by a phosphotransferase system including the permease NagE2/SCO2907 [
10] as well as proteins involved in the intracellular degradation of NAG (NagB/SCO5236, NagK/SCO4285, NagA/SCO4284) [
11].
This study revealed that only 7 deleted strains, for the genes pup, glnA2, glnA3, glnA4, dasR, glnK and glnE, to a lesser extent, had a significant positive impact on the total lipid/TAG content. These 7 strains were grown on R2YE either limited (1mM) or proficient (5mM) in phosphate (Pi) and their TAG content and level of ACT production was compared to that of the original strain S. coelicolor M145 (SC). This study revealed that it was the deletion of the pup, glnA2 and dasR genes that had the strongest positive impact on TAG content, in both Pi conditions but more so in Pi proficiency. Unexpectedly, the cardiolipin content of most of these strains (except that of glnA2 and pup mutant strains) was lower than that of the native strain and that of the dasR mutant strain was the lowest being 3 fold lower than that of the original strain. Interestingly ACT production was totally abolished in the dasR mutant in both Pi conditions whereas the deletion of pup, glnA2, glnA3 and glnA4 was correlated with a significant increase of total ACT production, in Pi limitation when this production was only slightly enhanced in the pup, glnA2 and glnA4 mutants and was strongly reduced in the glnA3 mutant as well as in the glnE and glnK mutants, in Pi proficiency.
Our study confirmed that N limitation is an important trigger of TAG biosynthesis in
SC, as in most other microorganisms studied [
12,
13,
14,
15]. Surprisingly, the high TAG content of 5 of the 7 mutant strains studied (with the exception of
glnA2 and
pup mutant strains) was correlated with a low cardiolipin content suggesting that TAG biosynthesis might occur at the expense of that of CL. N limitation also triggers ACT biosynthesis but the intensity of this trigger was limited by high Pi avialability whereas high Pi avialability stimulated TAG biosynthesis. At last our data indicated that the biosynthesis of TAG and that of ACT were not mutually exclusive even if many reports in the litterature mentioned that a high TAG content was usually correlated with low specialized metabolites production and conversely [
16,
17,
18,
19,
20]. In conclusion we propose that the biosynthesis of ACT, that was shown to have anti-oxidant properties [
21], and is likely to be induced by oxidative stress (OxS) [
22] toghether with the enhanced or reduced biosynthesis of TAG and CL, respectively, might contribute to the reduction of OxS resulting from nitrogen limitation or from other causes.
4. Discussion
In this issue: we demonstrated that mutant strains deleted for the genes
pup and
glnA2as well as for
glnA4 and
glnA3, to a lesser extent, that encode proteins involved in the degradation of N-containing biological molecules, proteins and polyamines, accumulate higher level of TAG than the original strain. Since TAG biosynthesis is known to be triggered in condition of N deprivation in most microorganisms [
12,
13,
14,
15], the higher TAG content of the
pup and
glnA2 mutant strains, compared to that of
glnA3 and
glnA4 mutants strains, suggested that the degradation of the Pup-targeted proteins by the proteasome and of short-chain polyamines (putrescine and cadaverine) by GlnA2 play a more important role in the internal N supply
via the recycling of N present in these biological molecules, than GlnA3 and GlnA4 involved in the degradation of long-chain polyamines (spermidine and spermine) and ethanolamine, respectively,. This might be due to the higher intracellular abundance of the GlnA2 substrates than of the GlnA3 and GlnA4 substrates. As a result, the deletion of
pup and
glnA2 led to more severe nitrogen limitation resulting into higher TAG content than that of
glnA3 and
glnA4.
The deletion of
dasR had also a strong positive impact on TAG biosynthesis whereas the deletion of genes belonging to the DasR regulon involved in NAG up-take and degradation did not (
Figure S3). Since DasR is a pleiotropic regulator with numerous regulatory targets [
57], its high TAG content is likely to result from multiple causes.
TAG accumulation in the DasR mutant cannot be due to the negative control it exerts on the expression of enzymes involved in NAG up-take and degradation, since in the
dasR mutant, the expression of these enzymes is higher than in the original strain [
8,
11] and should result into an enhanced N availability that has a negative impact on TAG biosynthesis.
The high TAG content of the
dasR mutant, could thus be due to the negative regulation that DasR exerts on the expression of genes encoding citrate synthases, enzymes catalyzing the conversion of citrate into acetylCoA [
34,
35] and acetyl-CoA synthetase [
33]. These regulatory features were demonstrated in
Saccharopolyspora erythraea but not in
SC, yet. However, if these enzymes are over-expressed in the
dasR mutant of
SC, as they are in the
dasR mutant
S. erythraea, an excess acetylCoA might be generated and used for the biosynthesis of fatty acids present in TAG.
Furthermore, DasR was shown to repress the expression of the regulator
dmdR1 that controls negatively the expression of genes involved in siderophore biosynthesis and up-take in
SC [
36,
37,
38,
39]. In consequence, in a DasR mutant these genes are not expressed and the siderophore-mediated iron uptake does not occur resulting into iron deprivation. Interestingly, iron deprivation was shown to promote TAG accumulation at least in
Chlamydomonas species [
58,
59]. Since iron is a necessary co-factor of numerous enzymes including enzymes of the TCA cycle (aconitase, citrate synthase, isocitrate dehydrogenase, and succinate dehydrogenase) and of the respiratory chain, reduced iron availability ought to result into low TCA activity whereas TCA activity is crucial for N assimilation. Iron deprivation might thus indirectly result into low N assimilation triggering TAG biosynthesis. Interestingly the lower TAG content of the d
asR mutant in Pi proficiency than in Pi limitation might be due to the fact that Pi could be transported as an iron chelate [
60] and thus co –Pi/iron transport might reduce the severity of iron shortage and thus of TAG accumulation.
At last, we noticed that the
dasR mutant had the lowest cardiolipin (CL) content of all strains. Its CL content was approximately 3 fold lower than that of the original strain in both Pi conditions. The very low CL content of the
dasR mutant was unexpected and is not understood but an anti-correlation between CL and TAG content was previously reported in
Saccharomyces cerevisiae [
61] suggesting that these two lipid species could be inter-converted. DasR might control positively CL biosynthesis as it does for iron uptake. CL and iron are both known to play an important role in the good functioning of enzymes of the respiratory chain [
62,
63,
64], so the co-regulation of these two processes by DasR could make sense. However
sco1389 encoding a putative eukaryotic-like cardiolipin synthase [
28,
65], was not found among the DasR target genes [
57]. In contrast,
sco5773, encoding putative phosphatidylglycerol phosphate synthase [
28,
65]
, could possibly be one of DasR target gene since it is located downstream, transcribed in the same direction and perhaps co-transcribed with
sco5751 that is listed as potential DasR target gene in
Table S1 of [
57]. If, as in other organisms, CL play an important role in the good functioning of enzymes of the respiratory chain [
62,
63,
64] and thus of respiration, the low CL content of the
dasR mutant might lead to a reduced respiration and thus a lower generation of OxS that was proposed to be an important trigger of ACT biosynthesis [
22]. Indeed the deletion of
dasR totally abolished ACT production in both Pi conditions whereas the deletion of
glnA2, glnA3, glnA4 and
pup led to an increase of ACT production (1.5 fold in average), compared to the original strain, in Pi limitation. As expected, in Pi proficiency, this increase was more moderate (1.2 in average) in the
glnA2, glnA4 and
pup mutant since ACT biosynthesis is known to be repressed in this condition [
50,
66]. In contrast and unexpectedly, ACT production was 6 fold lower in the
glnA3 mutant than in the original strain in Pi proficiency. The deletion of
glnE and
glnK also led to a strong reduction of ACT production (12 and 3.4 fold respectively) but only in Pi proficiency. Interestingly, in all strains ACT was mainly excreted in Pi limitation whereas in Pi proficiency ACT remained intracellular.
Since we have previously demonstrated that ACT bears an anti-oxidant function [
21] and is thus likely to be triggered by oxidative stress [
67,
68,
69], the strains producing high level of ACT are likely to be those experiencing high level of oxidative stress and conversely. The
glnA2, glnA3, glnA4 and
pup [
2] deletion mutants that are suffering from N limitation are likely to suffer from oxidative stress. Indeed, some reports in the literature mention that N limitation induces oxidative stress (OxS) [
70] and that OxS plays a positive role in the triggering of lipid/TAG biosynthesis in various organisms [
48,
71,
72]. The total absence of ACT biosynthesis in the
dasR mutant might be attributed to a low level of OxS due to the important storage of acetylCoA as TAG that limits the activation of the oxidative metabolism, generator of OxS, as well as to iron deficiency that limits the generation of OxS by the Fenton reaction [
73]. The very low ACT production of the
glnE,
glnK and
glnA3 mutant strains in Pi proficiency suggested that oxidative stress was lower in these mutants than in the original strain. GlnE is known to inhibit GlnA activity [
44] so in its absence, N assimilation might be stimulated resulting into N proficiency that is correlated lower level of OxS and thus lower ACT biosynthesis. The lower OxS of the
glnK mutant might also result from a better N assimilation. At last, the low level of OxS of the GlnA3 mutant, that is correlated with a reduced ACT biosynthesis, might be due to its high spermine and spermidine content. Indeed several reports in the literature mentioned that these molecules protect the cell against OxS [
74,
75].
In conclusion our study confirmed that N limitation is an important trigger of TAG biosynthesis in
SC, as in most microorganisms [
12,
13,
14,
15]. Surprisingly, the high TAG content of 5 of the 7 mutant strains studied (with the exception of
glnA2 and
pup mutant strains) was correlated with a low cardiolipin content suggesting that TAG biosynthesis might occur at the expense of that of CL. N limitation also triggers specialized metabolites biosynthesis but the intensity of this trigger was limited by high Pi avialability whereas high Pi avialability stimulated TAG biosynthesis. At last our data indicated that the biosynthesis of TAG and that of ACT were not mutually exclusive even if many reports in the litterature mentioned that a high TAG content was usually correlated with low specialized metabolites production and conversely [
16,
17,
18,
19,
20]. Interestingly, the enhanced and reduced TAG and CL content, respectively and the triggering of ACT biosynthesis might all contribute to the lowering of OxS. Indeed, the storage of acetylCoA as TAG would limits the feeding of the TCA cycle and thus the activation of the oxidative metabolism that generates OxS whereas low CL content might contribute to a lower respiratory activity that would lead to a reduction of OxS, at last ACT
via its anti-oxidant activity [
21] would also limit OxS resulting from nitrogen limitation or from other causes.
Figure 1.
LC/Corona-CAD analysis of the total lipid content of the original strain of S. coelicolor M145 (grey histograms) and of derivatives of this strain deleted for glnA2/sco2241 (purple histograms) (A), glnA3/sco6962 (yellow histograms) (B) or gnlA4/sco1613 (green histograms) (C). The strains were grown on modified solid R2YE medium either limited (1 mM, light color histograms) or proficient (5mM, dark color histograms) in phosphate, at 28◦C for 72 h. TAG, triacylglycerol; DAG, diacylglycerol (1,2 or 1,3); FA, fatty acids; MAG, monoacylglycerol; PE, phosphatidylethanolamine; OL, ornithine lipids; PI, phosphatidylinositol; Ac-PIM2, acetylated phosphatidylinositol mannoside 2; CL, cardiolipid. Means values are shown as histograms with error bars representing standard error. Means sharing a letter are not significantly different (P > 0.05; Tukey-adjusted comparisons).
Figure 1.
LC/Corona-CAD analysis of the total lipid content of the original strain of S. coelicolor M145 (grey histograms) and of derivatives of this strain deleted for glnA2/sco2241 (purple histograms) (A), glnA3/sco6962 (yellow histograms) (B) or gnlA4/sco1613 (green histograms) (C). The strains were grown on modified solid R2YE medium either limited (1 mM, light color histograms) or proficient (5mM, dark color histograms) in phosphate, at 28◦C for 72 h. TAG, triacylglycerol; DAG, diacylglycerol (1,2 or 1,3); FA, fatty acids; MAG, monoacylglycerol; PE, phosphatidylethanolamine; OL, ornithine lipids; PI, phosphatidylinositol; Ac-PIM2, acetylated phosphatidylinositol mannoside 2; CL, cardiolipid. Means values are shown as histograms with error bars representing standard error. Means sharing a letter are not significantly different (P > 0.05; Tukey-adjusted comparisons).
Figure 2.
LC/Corona-CAD analysis of the total lipid content of the original strain of S. coelicolor M145 (grey histograms) and of derivatives of this strain deleted for pup/sco1646 (marine blue histograms). The strains were grown on modified solid R2YE medium either limited (1 mM, light color histograms) or proficient (5mM, dark color histograms) in phosphate, at 28◦C for 72 h. TAG, triacylglycerol; DAG, diacylglycerol (1,2 or 1,3); FA, fatty acids; MAG, monoacylglycerol; PE, phosphatidylethanolamine; OL, ornithine lipids; PI, phosphatidylinositol; Ac-PIM2, acetylated phosphatidylinositol mannoside 2; CL, cardiolipid. Means values are shown as histograms with error bars representing standard error. Means sharing a letter are not significantly different (P > 0.05; Tukey-adjusted comparisons).
Figure 2.
LC/Corona-CAD analysis of the total lipid content of the original strain of S. coelicolor M145 (grey histograms) and of derivatives of this strain deleted for pup/sco1646 (marine blue histograms). The strains were grown on modified solid R2YE medium either limited (1 mM, light color histograms) or proficient (5mM, dark color histograms) in phosphate, at 28◦C for 72 h. TAG, triacylglycerol; DAG, diacylglycerol (1,2 or 1,3); FA, fatty acids; MAG, monoacylglycerol; PE, phosphatidylethanolamine; OL, ornithine lipids; PI, phosphatidylinositol; Ac-PIM2, acetylated phosphatidylinositol mannoside 2; CL, cardiolipid. Means values are shown as histograms with error bars representing standard error. Means sharing a letter are not significantly different (P > 0.05; Tukey-adjusted comparisons).
Figure 3.
LC/Corona-CAD analysis of the total lipid content of the original strain of S. coelicolor M145 (grey histograms) and of derivatives of this strain deleted for dasR/sco5231 (brown histograms). The strains were grown on modified solid R2YE medium either limited (1 mM, light color histograms) or proficient (5mM, dark color histograms) in phosphate, at 28◦C for 72 h. TAG, triacylglycerol; DAG, diacylglycerol (1,2 or 1,3); FA, fatty acids; MAG, monoacylglycerol; PE, phosphatidylethanolamine; OL, ornithine lipids; PI, phosphatidylinositol; Ac-PIM2, acetylated phosphatidylinositol mannoside 2; CL, cardiolipid. Means values are shown as histograms with error bars representing standard error. Means sharing a letter are not significantly different (P > 0.05; Tukey-adjusted comparisons).
Figure 3.
LC/Corona-CAD analysis of the total lipid content of the original strain of S. coelicolor M145 (grey histograms) and of derivatives of this strain deleted for dasR/sco5231 (brown histograms). The strains were grown on modified solid R2YE medium either limited (1 mM, light color histograms) or proficient (5mM, dark color histograms) in phosphate, at 28◦C for 72 h. TAG, triacylglycerol; DAG, diacylglycerol (1,2 or 1,3); FA, fatty acids; MAG, monoacylglycerol; PE, phosphatidylethanolamine; OL, ornithine lipids; PI, phosphatidylinositol; Ac-PIM2, acetylated phosphatidylinositol mannoside 2; CL, cardiolipid. Means values are shown as histograms with error bars representing standard error. Means sharing a letter are not significantly different (P > 0.05; Tukey-adjusted comparisons).
Figure 4.
LC/Corona-CAD analysis of the total lipid content of the original strain of S. coelicolor M145 (grey histograms) and of derivatives of this strain deleted for glnE/sco2234 (blue histograms) (A) and glnK/sco5584 (orange histograms) (B). The strains were grown on modified solid R2YE medium either limited (1 mM, light color histograms) or proficient (5mM, dark color histograms) in phosphate, at 28◦C for 72 h. TAG, triacylglycerol; DAG, diacylglycerol (1,2 or 1,3); FA, fatty acids; MAG, monoacylglycerol; PE, phosphatidylethanolamine; OL, ornithine lipids; PI, phosphatidylinositol; Ac-PIM2, acetylated phosphatidylinositol mannoside 2; CL, cardiolipid. Means values are shown as histograms with error bars representing standard error. Means sharing a letter are not significantly different (P > 0.05; Tukey-adjusted comparisons).
Figure 4.
LC/Corona-CAD analysis of the total lipid content of the original strain of S. coelicolor M145 (grey histograms) and of derivatives of this strain deleted for glnE/sco2234 (blue histograms) (A) and glnK/sco5584 (orange histograms) (B). The strains were grown on modified solid R2YE medium either limited (1 mM, light color histograms) or proficient (5mM, dark color histograms) in phosphate, at 28◦C for 72 h. TAG, triacylglycerol; DAG, diacylglycerol (1,2 or 1,3); FA, fatty acids; MAG, monoacylglycerol; PE, phosphatidylethanolamine; OL, ornithine lipids; PI, phosphatidylinositol; Ac-PIM2, acetylated phosphatidylinositol mannoside 2; CL, cardiolipid. Means values are shown as histograms with error bars representing standard error. Means sharing a letter are not significantly different (P > 0.05; Tukey-adjusted comparisons).
Figure 5.
Quantification of total cellular actinorhodin produced by the original strain of S. coelicolor M145 (grey histograms) and derivatives of this strain deleted for the genes glnK/sco5584 (orange histograms) and glnE/sco2234 (blue histograms), glnA3/sco6962 (yellow histograms), glnA2/sco2241 (purple histograms), gnlA4/sco1613 (green histograms) and pup/sco1646 (marine blue histograms) on modified solid R2YE medium either limited (1mM) (A) or proficient (5 mM) in phosphate (B) grown at 28◦C for 72 h. Plain and hatched parts of the histograms represent extracellular and intracellular ACT production, respectively. Means values are shown as histograms with error bars representing standard error. Means sharing a letter are not significantly different (P > 0.05; Tukey-adjusted comparisons).
Figure 5.
Quantification of total cellular actinorhodin produced by the original strain of S. coelicolor M145 (grey histograms) and derivatives of this strain deleted for the genes glnK/sco5584 (orange histograms) and glnE/sco2234 (blue histograms), glnA3/sco6962 (yellow histograms), glnA2/sco2241 (purple histograms), gnlA4/sco1613 (green histograms) and pup/sco1646 (marine blue histograms) on modified solid R2YE medium either limited (1mM) (A) or proficient (5 mM) in phosphate (B) grown at 28◦C for 72 h. Plain and hatched parts of the histograms represent extracellular and intracellular ACT production, respectively. Means values are shown as histograms with error bars representing standard error. Means sharing a letter are not significantly different (P > 0.05; Tukey-adjusted comparisons).