Polyamine and Ethanolamine Metabolism in Bacteria as an Important Component of Nitrogen Assimilation for Survival and Pathogenicity

Abstract

Nitrogen is an essential element required for bacterial growth. It serves as a building block for the biosynthesis of macromolecules and provides precursors for secondary metabolites. Bacteria have developed the ability to use various nitrogen sources and possess two enzyme systems for nitrogen assimilation involving glutamine synthetase/glutamate synthase and glutamate dehydrogenase. Microorganisms living in habitats with changeable availability of nutrients have developed strategies to survive under nitrogen limitation. One adaptation is the ability to acquire nitrogen from alternative sources including the polyamines putrescine, cadaverine, spermidine and spermine, as well as the monoamine ethanolamine. Bacterial polyamine and monoamine metabolism is not only important under low nitrogen availability, but it is also required to survive under high concentrations of these compounds. Such conditions can occur in diverse habitats such as soil, plant tissues and human cells. Strategies of pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria to survive in the presence of poly- and monoamines offer the possibility to combat pathogens by using their capability to metabolize polyamines as an antibiotic drug target. This work aims to summarize the knowledge on poly- and monoamine metabolism in bacteria and its role in nitrogen metabolism.

Biological effects of Thymol loaded chitosan nanoparticles (TCNPs) on bacterial plant pathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris

“…Amino acids are considered as a sole resource of carbon, nitrogen and protein biosynthesis and essential for bacterial growth and survival ( Saldanha et al, 2020 ; Picchi et al, 2021 ). Glutamine forms an important source of nitrogen in bacterial cells and is needed for the synthesis of many nitrogen containing compounds, including amino acids ( Krysenko and Wohlleben, 2022 ). Leucine, valine and isoleucine are the three essential branched chain amino acids which are required for the growth of bacteria.…”

Icescape‐scale metabolomics reveals cyanobacterial and topographic control of the core metabolism of the cryoconite ecosystem of an Arctic ice cap

“…Spermidine was shown to be involved in the maintenance of cell viability in cyanobacteria specifically under combined light and cold conditions, possibly through the promotion of transcription and/or translation by binding to nucleic acid targets (Igarashi & Kashiwagi, 2000; Zhu et al, 2015). Based on the degree of photosynthetic metabolite potential and high expression of specific TCA cycle metabolites, it is likely that these processes drive polyamine metabolism and N‐assimilation in this localised region of the ice cap, highlighting the potential importance of polyamines as a cyanobacterial survival and nitrogen assimilation mechanism in this environment (Krysenko & Wohlleben, 2022; Zhu et al, 2015).…”

“…These fatty acids can be directed towards EPS production by autogenic ecosystem engineers such as filamentous cyanobacteria and for maintenance of cell membrane integrity, while other fatty acids, recognized as prominent stress-induced hormones in specific kingdoms, respond to temperature and UV-stress (Tsuji, 2016). These polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have been found to trigger a respiratory burst in algal systems to control the growth of bacterial biofilms by limiting the action of degradative products (Küpper et al, 2009). Further processing of these of these PUFAs leads to the production of such as hydroperoxyeicosatetraenoic acid (5-HPETE; arachidonic acid 5-hydroperoxide) or the linolenic acid derivative, jasmonic acid.…”

A patchwork pathway of apparently recent origin enables degradation of the synthetic buffer compound TRIS in bacteria

“…It is tempting to speculate that the TaoA proteins have originated in Shinella or a similar organism through the duplication and mutation of CDH-encoding genes. TupA and TaoB have highest similarities to proteins involved in the degradation of polyamines like putrescine [23, 24], suggesting that these proteins were recruited from bacterial polyamine degradation pathways [25]. The fact that Teo1 was not able to use other α-substituted amino alcohols such as 2-amino-2-methylpropanol and 2-amino-2-methylproandiol as growth substrates suggests that either the substrate uptake by TupA or the oxidation reactions catalysed by TaoAB evolved to be highly specific for TRIS.…”