Question

Can I have more information of Burkholderia thailandensis. I'm interested how specifically respond to oxidative stress, thank you!

Answer 1

Burkholderia thailandensis is a gram-negative bacteria usually found in soil. Disturbance of free radicals and peroxide inside the cell. It may lead to DNA damage and even cell death. The rising resistance of bacteria to various antibiotics and oxidative stress has become a serious concern to the scientists.

Meiru Si et al. 2017, discuss the role of a protein export machinery called Type VI Secretion System (T6SS) as a tool to provide resistance against oxidative stress in Burkholderia thailandensis

Here is the link for the article - http://www.pnas.org/content/114/11/E2233

According to them T6SS - 4 is induced by a conserved oxidative regulator OxyR, which is activated under oxidative stress conditions. Uptake of Mn²⁺ helps to cope up oxidative stress, which is maintained by tseM and mnoT genes. These genes are also activated by OxyR when Burkholderia thailandensis is under oxidative stress.

Multiple Antibiotic Resistance Regulators (MARRs) is another set of proteins involved in the regulation of Oxidative stress genes.

Organic hydroperoxide reductase (ohr) has been cloned from Burkholderia thailandensis and have been shown to mediate oxidative stress regulating mechanisms to help bacteria survive in hostile condition.

These proteins help in catalyzing the peroxides and free radicals with the help of transition metals, which bring a conformational change in the structure of these proteins to catalyse the reaction for the degradation of the free radicals from the bacterial cell.

A very related species Burkholderia pseudomallei sigma factors such as RPoS is known to enhance the activity of OxyR, which regulates the oxidative stress control mechanism.