Soufian Ouchane

Université Paris-Saclay · I2BC Microbiology

In this study, we propose a novel approach for the silica coating of silver nanoparticles based on surface modification with adenosine monophosphate (AMP). Upon AMP stabilization, the nanoparticles can be transferred into 2-propanol, promoting the growth of silica on the particle surfaces through the standard Stöber process. The obtained silica she...

The xanthine oxidoreductase (XOR) family are metal-containing enzymes that use the molybdenum cofactor (Moco), 2Fe-2S clusters, and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) for their catalytic activity. This large molybdoenzyme family includes xanthine, aldehyde, and CO dehydrogenases. XORs are widely distributed from bacteria to humans due to their key r...

In this study, we propose a novel approach for the silica coating of silver nanoparticles based on surface modification with adenosine monophosphate (AMP). Upon AMP stabilization, the nanoparticles can be transferred into 2-propanol, promoting the growth of silica on the particle surfaces through the standard Stöber process. The obtained silica she...

From bacteria to plants and humans, the glutathione system plays a pleiotropic role in cell defense against metabolic, oxidative and metal stresses. Glutathione (GSH), the γ-L-glutamyl-L-cysteinyl-glycine nucleophile tri-peptide, is the central player of this system that acts in redox ho-meostasis, detoxification and iron metabolism in most living...

Iron is an essential nutrient in bacteria. Its ferrous form, mostly present in low oxygen and acidic pH environments, can be imported using the specific Ftr‐type transport system, which encompasses the conserved FtrABCD system found in pathogenic bacteria such as Bordetella, Brucella and Burkholderia. The nonpathogenicity and versatile metabolism o...

Importance of copper resistance pathways in pathogenic bacteria is now well recognized since macrophages use copper to fight bacterial infections. Additionally, considering the increase of antibiotic resistance, growing attention is given to the antimicrobial properties of copper. It is of primary importance to understand how bacteria deal with cop...

The use of silver (Ag ⁺ ) as an antimicrobial under different forms and at different scales, appears in numerous applications such as in health care, food industry, clothing, fabrics and disinfectants. Yet, there is still important gaps regarding the complete comprehension of the mechanisms of its actions on bacteria. In a previous work, we demonst...

The use of silver (Ag + ) as an antimicrobial under different forms and at different scales, appears in numerous applications such as in health care, food industry, clothing, fabrics and disinfectants. Yet, there is still important gaps regarding the complete comprehension of the mechanisms of its actions on bacteria. In a previous work, we demonst...

Pollution by copper (Cu²⁺) extensively used as antimicrobial in agriculture and farming represents a threat to the environment and human health. Finding ways to make microorganisms sensitive to lower metal concentrations could help decreasing the use of Cu²⁺ in agriculture. In this respect, we showed that limiting iron (Fe) uptake makes bacteria mu...

Heavy metal contamination is a serious environmental problem. Understanding the toxicity mechanisms may allow to lower concentration of metals in the metal‐based antimicrobial treatments of crops, and reduce metal content in soil and groundwater. Here, we investigate the interplay between metal efflux systems and the superoxide dismutase (SOD) in t...

Cadmium, although not redox active is highly toxic. Yet, the underlying mechanisms driving toxicity are still to be characterized. In this study, we took advantage of the purple bacterium Rubrivivax gelatinosus strain with defective Cd2 +-efflux system to identify targets of this metal. Exposure of the ΔcadA strain to Cd2 + causes a decrease in the...

In an effort to develop an analytical method capable of finding new metalloproteins, this is the first report of a new diagonal gel electrophoresis method to isolate and identify metalloproteins, based on the molecular recognition of holo- and apo-metalloproteins (metalbound and -free forms, respectively) by CBB G-250 dye and employing metal ion co...

The use of metal ions represents a serious threat to the environment and to all living organisms because of the acute toxicity of these ions. Nowadays, silver nanoparticles are one of the most widely used nanoparticles in various industrial and health applications. The antimicrobial effect of nanoparticles is in part related to the released Ag ⁺ io...

The cbb3 oxidase has a high affinity for oxygen and is required for growth of bacteria, including pathogens, in oxygen-limited environments. However, the assembly of this oxidase is poorly understood. Most cbb3 are composed of four subunits: the catalytic CcoN subunit, the two cytochromes c subunits (CcoO and CcoP) involved in electron transfer and...

Importance: Copper is an essential cation required as a cofactor in enzymes involved in vital processes such as respiration, photosynthesis, free radical scavenging, and pathogenesis. However, copper is highly toxic and has been implicated in disorders in all organisms, including humans, because it can catalyze the production of toxic reactive oxy...

Characterization of a copA(-) mutant in the purple photosynthetic bacterium Rubrivivax gelatinosus under low oxygen or anaerobic conditions, as well as in the human pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae identified HemN as a copper toxicity target enzyme in the porphyrin synthesis pathway (Azzouzi et al., 2013; Djoko and McEwan, 2013). Heme synthesis is ho...

##Assembly-Data-START## Assembly Method :: ApE v. 2011 Sequencing Technology :: 454; Illumina ##Assembly-Data-END##

Photosynthetic bacteria can switch from planktonic lifestyle to phototrophic biofilm in mats in response to environmental changes. The mechanisms of phototrophic biofilm formation are, however, not characterized. Herein, we report a two-component system EmbRS that controls the biofilm formation in a photosynthetic member of the Burkholderiales orde...

Two genes encoding structurally similar Copper P1B -type ATPases can be identified in several genomes. Notwithstanding the high sequence and structural similarities these ATPases held, it has been suggested that they fulfill distinct physiological roles. In deed, we have shown that the Cu+ -ATPase CtpA is required only for the activity of cuproprot...

##Assembly-Data-START## Assembly Method :: chromas v. 2005 Sequencing Technology :: 454 ##Assembly-Data-END##

##Assembly-Data-START## Assembly Method :: chromas v. 2005 Sequencing Technology :: 454 ##Assembly-Data-END##

The appearance of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere via oxygenic photosynthesis required strict anaerobes and obligate phototrophs to cope with the presence of this toxic molecule. Here we show that in the anoxygenic phototroph Rubrivivax gelatinosus, the terminal oxidases (cbb3, bd, and caa3) expand the range of ambient oxygen tensions under which...

The ctpA (ccoI) gene product, a putative inner membrane copper-translocating P1B-type ATPase present in many bacteria, has been shown to be involved only in the cbb3 assembly in Rhodobacter capsulatus and Bradyrhizobium japonicum. ctpA was disrupted in Rubrivivax gelatinosus, and the mutants showed a drastic decrease in both cbb3 and caa3 oxidase a...

The appearance of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere via oxygenic photosynthesis required strict anaerobes and obligate phototrophs to cope with the presence of this toxic molecule. Here we show that in the anoxygenic phototroph Rubrivivax gelatinosus, the terminal oxidases (cbb(3), bd, and caa(3)) expand the range of ambient oxygen tensions under wh...

A survey of genomes for the presence of gene clusters related to cbb3 oxidases detected bona fide members of the family in almost all phyla of the domain Bacteria. No archaeal representatives were found. The subunit composition was seen to vary substantially between clades observed on the phylogenetic tree of the catalytic subunit CcoN. The protein...

Genes belonging to the same metabolic route are usually organized in operons in microbial genomes. For instance, most genes involved in photosynthesis were found clustered and organized in operons in photosynthetic Alpha- and Betaproteobacteria. The discovery of Gammaproteobacteria with a conserved photosynthetic gene cluster revives the questions...

Fnr is a regulator that controls the expression of a variety of genes in response to oxygen limitation in bacteria. To assess the role of Fnr in photosynthesis in Rubrivivax gelatinosus, a strain carrying a null mutation in fnrL was constructed. It was unable to grow anaerobically in the light, but, intriguingly, it was able to produce photosynthet...

Previously published phylogenetic trees reconstructed on "Rieske protein" sequences frequently are at odds with each other, with those of other subunits of the parent enzymes and with small-subunit rRNA trees. These differences are shown to be at least partially if not completely due to problems in the reconstruction procedures. A major source of e...

Bacterial cytochrome bc1-complex encoded by the petABC operon consists of three subunits, the Rieske iron-sulphur protein, the b-type cytochrome, and the c1-type cytochrome. Disruption of the petA gene of Rubrivivax gelatinosus is not lethal under photosynthetic growth conditions. However, deletion of both petA and petB results in a photosynthesis-...

Induction of biosynthesis of the photosystem in anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria occurs when the oxygen concentration drops. Control of this induction takes place primarily at the transcriptional level, with photosynthesis genes expressed preferentially under anaerobic conditions. Here, we report analysis of the transcriptional control of two pho...

The facultative phototrophic nonsulfur bacterium Rubrivivax gelatinosus exhibits several differences from other species of purple bacteria in the organization of its photosynthetic genes. In particular, the puc operon contains only the pucB and pucA genes encoding the β and α polypeptides of the light-harvesting 2 (LH2) complex. Downstream of the p...

Two different mechanisms for Mg-protoporphyrin monomethyl ester (MgPMe) cyclization are shown to coexist in Rubrivivax gelatinosus and are proposed to be conserved in all facultative aerobic phototrophs: an anaerobic mechanism active under photosynthesis or low oxygenation, and an aerobic mechanism active only under high oxygenation conditions. Thi...

Carotenoids are widely spread terpenoids found in photosynthetic organisms and a number of non-photosynthetic fungi and bacteria. The photosynthetic non-sulfur purple bacterium Rubrivivax gelatinosus produces carotenoids by both the spheroidene and the normal spirilloxanthin pathways. The characteristics of two carotenogenesis enzymes, spheroidene...

Biochemical analyses of Rubrivivax gelatinosus membranes have revealed that the cytochrome bc1 complex is highly resistant to classical inhibitors including myxothiazol, stigmatellin, and antimycin. This is the first report of a strain exhibiting resistance to inhibitors of both catalytic Q0 and Qi sites. Because the resistance to cytochrome bc1 in...

Photosynthesis gene expression in Rhodobacter sphaeroides is controlled in part by the two-component (Prr) regulatory system composed of a membrane-bound sensor kinase (PrrB) and a response regulator (PrrA). Hydropathy profile-based computer analysis predicted that the PrrB polypeptide could contain six membrane-spanning domains at its amino termin...

The carotenoids are probably the most widespread of all natural pigments and are responsible for many of the colors appearing in nature, in animals, plants and microorganisms. These molecules are synthesized by plants and many microorganisms. Carotenoids have recently been the focus of intense interest in both biology and medecine, it has been prop...

Carotenoids are essential to protection against photooxidative damage in photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic organisms. In a previous study, we reported the disruption of crtD and crtC carotenoid genes in the purple bacterium Rubrivivax gelatinosus, resulting in mutants that synthesized carotenoid intermediates. Here, carotenoid-less mutants have...

Rubrivivax gelatinosus mutants affected in the carotenoid biosynthesis pathways were created by interposon mutagenesis within the puf operon. Genetic and biochemical analysis of several constructed mutants suggest that at least crtC is localized downstream of the puf operon and that it is cotranscribed with this operon. Sequence analysis confirmed...

Gene transfer systems were developed in Rubrivivax (Rx.) gelatinosus S1. First, a system for conjugative transfer of mobilizable plasmids from Escherichia coli to Rx. gelatinosus S1 was established. Secondly, optimal conditions for the transformation of Rx. gelatinosus S1 by electroporation were determined. A delta puf strain was constructed. Compl...

Rubrivivax gelatinosus is a facultative phototrophic non-sulfur bacterium belonging to the beta subclass of the purple bacteria. A terbutryn-resistant mutant of R. gelatinosus has been isolated and characterized. Increased resistance levels to terbutryn (300-fold), atrazine (6-fold) and o-phenanthroline (3-fold) were observed for the mutant compare...