The transcriptome analysis of Escherichia coli responding to tellurite

Abstract

Tellurite is a strong antimicrobial agent highly toxic to many microorganisms, while its toxicity mechanism is still unclear. In this study, the comparative transcriptome analysis of E. coli MG1655 responding to the stress of tellurite was performed and the differentially transcribed genes were analyzed, to understand toxicity mechanisms of tellurite preliminaryly and uncover metabolism processes changes resulted from tellurite globally. After treated with 10 µg/mL tellurite for 1 h, high concentration and long time, the cells exhibited an obvious adaptive reaction and many metabolic processes were influenced. The transcription of the genes involved in the ribosome metabolism and the flagella assembly were changed significantly, implying they might be the major pathway affected by tellurite. The transcription of the genes encoding the transcriptional factors and small RNAs, and the genes functioned in the cell motility, metal ion metabolism and membrane function were also varied, which may participate in the metabolism adjustment and damage repair to resist the toxicity of tellurite. This work can facilitate the study of the toxicity mechanism of tellurite and promote the clinical application of this chemical.