Novel gene clusters involved in arsenite oxidation and resistance in two arsenite oxidizers: Achromobacter sp SY8 and Pseudomonas sp TS44

This study describes three gene clusters involved in arsenic redox transformation of two arsenite oxidizers: Achromobacter sp. SY8 and Pseudomonas sp. TS44. A 17.5-kb sequence containing the arsenite oxidase (aox) gene cluster (aoxX-aoxS-aoxR and aoxA-aoxB-aoxC-aoxD) was isolated from SY8 using a fosmid library approach. Similarly, a 14.6-kb sequence including the aox cluster (arsD-arsA-aoxA-aoxB) and the arsenic resistance (ars) gene cluster (arsC1-arsR-arsC2-ACR3-arsH-dual specificity phosphatase (DSP)-glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH)-major facilitator superfamily (MFS)) was obtained from TS44 by inverse polymerase chain reaction (PCR). According to reverse transcription (RT) PCR experiments, SY8 aoxXSR and aoxABCD transcribed as two different transcripts in opposite directions, and TS44 aox and ars clusters transcribed as a single transcript in their respective cluster. All of these genes were found to be upregulated by the addition of arsenite [As(III)], arsenate [As(V)], and antimonite [Sb(III)], except that TS44 arsC1-arsR appeared to be expressed constitutively. The SY8 aox cluster was predicted to be regulated by a two-component signal transduction system and a potential regulatory model was proposed. The TS44 aox cluster is unusual since it contains structural genes only and arsDA in its upstream. The TS44 ars cluster includes several genes previously identified not associated with arsenic resistance or transformation. This study showed novel structures and arrangements of arsenic gene clusters associated with bacterial As(III) oxidation and As(V) reduction.