Impact of ArcA loss in Shewanella oneidensis revealed by comparative proteomics under aerobic and anaerobic conditions

Shewanella inhabit a wide variety of niches in nature and can utilize a broad spectrum of electron acceptors under anaerobic conditions. How they modulate their gene expression to adapt is poorly understood. ArcA, homologue of a global regulator controlling hundreds of genes involved in aerobic and anaerobic respiration in E. coli, was shown to be important in aerobiosis/anaerobiosis of S. oneidensis as well. Loss of ArcA, in addition to altering transcription of many genes, resulted in impaired growth under aerobic condition, which was not observed in E. coli. To further characterize the impact of ArcA loss on gene expression on the level of proteome under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, liquid-chromatography-mass-spectrometry (LC-MS) based proteomic approach was employed. Results show that ArcA loss led to globally altered gene expression, generally consistent with that observed with transcripts. Comparison of transcriptomic and proteomic data permitted identification of 17 high-confidence ArcA targets. Moreover, our data indicate that ArcA is required for regulation of cytochrome c proteins, and the menaquinone level may play a role in regulating ArcA as in E. coli. Proteomic data-guided growth assay revealed that the aerobic growth defect of ArcA mutant is presumably due to impaired peptide utilization.