[Antioxidant function of the iron binding protein DRA0258 in Deinococcus radiodurans]

Objective: The complete genome of the extreme environmental resistant bacterium Deiococcus radiodurans R1 was analyzed by sequence comparative method and putative ferritin-like protein DRA0258 was screened. Molecular techniques were applied to validate and analyze its function.

Methods: We applied sequence alignment to analyze amino acid sequence of the hypothetical protein DRA0258 and detected its iron binding activity after purification. We used triple-fraction-ligation method to construct dra0258 null mutant and detected its survival rate under H2O2 treatment, catalase activity and total antioxidant capacity, using QRT-PCR to examine the relative transcriptional level change of the antioxidant relative enzymes and iron transport relative proteins.

Resutls: We confirmed DRA0258 obtained a certain iron binding activity. The survival rate assay with H2O2 treatment suggested that deletion of dra0258 reduced the cellular antioxidant activity of D. radiodurans. The attenuation of catalase activity, total antioxidant capacity as well as the reduction of relative transcriptional levels of antioxidant related genes verified that both the oxidative stress response systems and the iron regulation network were damaged.

Conclusion: This study verified DRA0258 is an iron-binding protein. Deletion of this gene would affect cellular iron transport system and reduce cellular antioxidant capability.