Publication detail

Accumulation of Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) Helps Bacterial Cells to Survive Freezing

OBRUČA, S. SEDLÁČEK, P. KRZYZANEK, V. MRAVEC, F. HRUBANOVA, K. SAMEK, O. KUČERA, D. BENEŠOVÁ, P. MÁROVÁ, I.

Original Title

Accumulation of Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) Helps Bacterial Cells to Survive Freezing

Type

journal article in Web of Science

Language

English

Original Abstract

Accumulation of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) seems to be a common metabolic strategy adopted by many bacteria to cope with cold environments. This work aimed at evaluating and understanding the cryoprotective effect of PHB. At first a monomer of PHB, 3-hydroxybutyrate, was identified as a potent cryoprotectant capable of protecting model enzyme (lipase), yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and bacterial cells (Cupriavidus necator) against the adverse effects of freezing-thawing cycles. Further, the viability of the frozen-thawed PHB accumulating strain of C. necator was compared to that of the PHB non-accumulating mutant. The presence of PHB granules in cells was revealed to be a significant advantage during freezing. This might be attributed to the higher intracellular level of 3-hydroxybutyrate in PHB accumulating cells (due to the action of parallel PHB synthesis and degradation, the so-called PHB cycle), but the cryoprotective effect of PHB granules seems to be more complex. Since intracellular PHB granules retain highly flexible properties even at extremely low temperatures (observed by cryo-SEM), it can be expected that PHB granules protect cells against injury from extracellular ice. Finally, thermal analysis indicates that PHB-containing cells exhibit a higher rate of transmembrane water transport, which protects cells against the formation of intracellular ice which usually has fatal consequences.

Keywords

Polyhydroxybutyrate, 3-hydroxybuyrate, cryoprotectants, intracellular water, stress response

Authors

OBRUČA, S.; SEDLÁČEK, P.; KRZYZANEK, V.; MRAVEC, F.; HRUBANOVA, K.; SAMEK, O.; KUČERA, D.; BENEŠOVÁ, P.; MÁROVÁ, I.

Released

17. 6. 2016

Publisher

PLoS

ISBN

1932-6203

Periodical

PLOS ONE

Year of study

11

Number

6

State

United States of America

Pages from

1

Pages to

16

Pages count

16

URL

Full text in the Digital Library

BibTex

@article{BUT126803,
  author="OBRUČA, S. and SEDLÁČEK, P. and KRZYZANEK, V. and MRAVEC, F. and HRUBANOVA, K. and SAMEK, O. and KUČERA, D. and BENEŠOVÁ, P. and MÁROVÁ, I.",
  title="Accumulation of Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) Helps Bacterial Cells to Survive Freezing",
  journal="PLOS ONE",
  year="2016",
  volume="11",
  number="6",
  pages="1--16",
  doi="10.1371/journal.pone.0157778",
  issn="1932-6203",
  url="http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4912086?pdf=render"
}