An assimilatory sulfite reductase, CysI, negatively regulates the dormancy of Microbulbifer aggregans CCB-MM1T

by Tarmizi Diyana; Go Furusawa

A marine bacterium, Microbulbifer aggregans, enters the dormant (sleeping) state under unpreferable conditions such as starvation. The bacterium demonstrates cell morphology change, rod-coccus cell morphology changes when the bacterium enters the dormant state. However, the dormancy mechanism remains unknown. Ms. Tarmizi Diyana, under the supervision of Dr. Go Furusawa, has found that amino acid, cysteine, plays an important role in entering the dormant state of M. aggregans.  It was found that genes involved in the assimilatory sulfate reduction pathway related to cysteine synthesis were downregulated in the dormancy. The disruption of the gene encoding an assimilatory sulfite reductase, CysI, showed cell aggregation and coccus morphology change at the middle‐exponential phase, indicating that the mutation might be stimulated to enter the dormancy. The mutant recovered the wild‐type phenotype by the addition of cysteine. These results suggested that cysteine concentration may play an essential role in inducing the dormancy of M. aggregans.


Link :  https://doi.org/10.1002/jobm.202100198


CCB Ref.:  2021_RH_3_furusawa
Date :  01/12/2021