Sensitive, rapid, and specific bioassay for the determination of antilipogenic compounds

Detection of Metal and Organometallic Compounds with Bioluminescent Bacterial Bioassays

Chemical detection of metal and organometallic compounds is very specific and sensitive, but these techniques are time consuming and expensive. Although these techniques provide information about the concentrations of compounds, they fail to inform us about the toxicity of a sample. Because the toxic effects of metals and organometallic compounds are influenced by a multitude of environmental factors, such as pH, the presence of chelating agents, speciation, and organic matter, bioassays have been developed for ecotoxicological studies. Among these bioassays, recombinant luminescent bacteria have been developed over the past 20 years, and many of them are specific for the detection of metals and metalloids. These bioassays are simple to use, are inexpensive, and provide information on the bioavailable fraction of metals and organometals. Thus, they are an essential complementary tool for providing information beyond chemical analysis. In this chapter, we propose to investigate the detection of metals and organometallic compounds with bioluminescent bacterial bioassays and the applications of these bioassays to environmental samples. Graphical Abstract.

Inhibition of Vibrio harveyi bioluminescence by cerulenin: in vivo evidence for covalent modification of the reductase enzyme involved in aldehyde synthesis

Bacterial bioluminescence is very sensitive to cerulenin, a fungal antibiotic which is known to inhibit fatty acid synthesis. When Vibrio harveyi cells pretreated with cerulenin were incubated with [3H]myristic acid in vivo, acylation of the 57-kilodalton reductase subunit of the luminescence-specific fatty acid reductase complex was specifically inhibited. In contrast, in vitro acylation of both the synthetase and transferase subunits, as well as the activities of luciferase, transferase, and aldehyde dehydrogenase, were not adversely affected by cerulenin. Light emission of wild-type V. harveyi was 20-fold less sensitive to cerulenin at low concentrations (10 micrograms/ml) than that of the dark mutant strain M17, which requires exogenous myristic acid for luminescence because of a defective transferase subunit. The sensitivity of myristic acid-stimulated luminescence in the mutant strain M17 exceeded that of phospholipid synthesis from [14C]acetate, whereas uptake and incorporation of exogenous [14C]myristic acid into phospholipids was increased by cerulenin. The reductase subunit could be labeled by incubating M17 cells with [3H]tetrahydrocerulenin; this labeling was prevented by preincubation with either unlabeled cerulenin or myristic acid. Labeling of the reductase subunit with [3H]tetrahydrocerulenin was also noted in an aldehyde-stimulated mutant (A16) but not in wild-type cells or in another aldehyde-stimulated mutant (M42) in which [3H]myristoyl turnover at the reductase subunit was found to be defective. These results indicate that (i) cerulenin specifically and covalently inhibits the reductase component of aldehyde synthesis, (ii) this enzyme is partially protected from cerulenin inhibition in the wild-type strain in vivo, and (iii) two dark mutants which exhibit similar luminescence phenotypes (mutants A16 and M42) are blocked at different stages of fatty acid reduction.

Elongation of exogenous fatty acids by the bioluminescent bacterium Vibrio harveyi

Bioluminescent bacteria require myristic acid (C14:0) to produce the myristaldehyde substrate of the light-emitting luciferase reaction. Since both endogenous and exogenous C14:0 can be used for this purpose, the metabolism of exogenous fatty acids by luminescent bacteria has been investigated. Both Vibrio harveyi and Vibrio fischeri incorporated label from [1-14C]myristic acid (C14:0) into phospholipid acyl chains as well as into CO2. In contrast, Photobacterium phosphoreum did not exhibit phospholipid acylation or beta-oxidation using exogenous fatty acids. Unlike Escherichia coli, the two Vibrio species can directly elongate fatty acids such as octanoic (C8:0), lauric (C12:0), and myristic acid, as demonstrated by radio-gas liquid chromatography. The induction of bioluminescence in late exponential growth had little effect on the ability of V. harveyi to elongate fatty acids, but it did increase the amount of C14:0 relative to C16:0 labeled from [14C]C8:0. This was not observed in a dark mutant of V. harveyi that is incapable of supplying endogenous C14:0 for luminescence. Cerulenin preferentially decreased the labeling of C16:0 and of unsaturated fatty acids from all 14C-labeled fatty acid precursors as well as from [14C]acetate, suggesting that common mechanisms may be involved in elongation of fatty acids from endogenous and exogenous sources. Fatty acylation of the luminescence-related synthetase and reductase enzymes responsible for aldehyde synthesis exhibited a chain-length preference for C14:0, which also was indicated by reverse-phase thin-layer chromatography of the acyl groups attached to these enzymes. The ability of V. harveyi to activate and elongate exogenous fatty acids may be related to an adaptive requirement to metabolize intracellular C14:0 generated by the luciferase reaction during luminescence development.

Control of aldehyde synthesis in the luminous bacterium Beneckea harveyi

Some of the Beneckea harveyi dim aldehyde mutants, all of which emit light upon addition of exogenous long-chain aldehyde, also emit light when myristic acid is added. Analysis of these myristic acid-responsive mutants indicates that they are blocked before fatty acid formation, whereas another class of mutants, which respond only to aldehyde, appear to be defective in the enzyme(s) involved in the conversion of acid to aldehyde. Evidence is presented that this activity, designated myristic acid reductase, is coinduced with luciferase and is involved in the recycling of acid produced in the luciferase reaction, with specificity for the C14 compounds.

Growth, luminescence, respiration, and the ATP pool during autoinduction in Beneckea harveyi

The bacterial bioluminescence system is unusual because it is self-induced. In the late logarithmic phase of growth, upon the accumulation of an autoinducer, the synthesis of the components of the system is initiated. We were interested in determining what effect this burst of synthesis and activity has on cellular energy metabolism. The ATP pool of the luminous bacterium Beneckea harveyi was found to dip 10- to 20-fold during the luminescence period, while the respiration per unit cell mass (optical density) increased but by much less. The dip in the ATP pool did not occur in four different types of dark mutants, including one that was temperature conditional and another that was conditional upon added cyclic AMP for luminescence. However, it is neither the synthesis nor the activity of luciferase that is responsible for the ATP dip; the dip does not occur in certain dark "aldehyde" mutants which nevertheless synthesize normal levels of luciferase, whereas it does occur at 36 degrees C in a temperature-sensitive luciferase mutant which forms normal levels of inactive luciferase. Results with other aldehyde mutants implicate the pathway involved in the synthesis of the aldehyde factor with the ATP dip.