Glutaminase activity and glutamine-dependent acid resistance in enteric bacteria
Many neutralophilic bacteria have developed several strategies to overcome the life-threatening effect of the exposure to a mild-to-harsh acid stress [1]. Among these strategies, the amino acid-dependent systems were shown to be quite widespread amongst gram-positive and –negative bacteria, and their activities overlap so to cover a rather large pH range, from 6 to We have undertaken a bioinformatic analysis to study the distribution of the glutaminase-dependent AR system in enteric bacteria and developed two assays. The first assay was developed for a rapid screening of the glutaminase activity and the growth conditions that support its maximum expression. The second assay was developed to measure the amount of glutamate/GABA exported. Our results indicate that the glutamine-dependent AR is likely to be of prominent importance in enteric bacteria.
[1] Lund et al. (2014) FEMS MIcrobiol Rev 38:1091-125. [2] Lu et al. (2013) Cell Res 23:635–644. [3] Teixeira et al. (2014) Food Microbiol 42:172-180. [4] Freddi et al. (2017) Front Microbiol 8:2236.