Biosynthesis of arsenolipids by the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803
Xi-Mei Xue A B , Georg Raber C , Simon Foster D , Song-Can Chen B E , Kevin A. Francesconi C F and Yong-Guan Zhu A E F
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1799 Jimei Road, Jimei District, Xiamen 361021, China.
B University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19A Yuquan Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing 100049, China.
C Institute of Chemistry, University of Graz, Universitaetsplatz 1, A-8010 Graz, Austria.
D Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra, Bruce, ACT 2601, Australia.
E State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 18 Shuangqing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100085, China.
F Corresponding authors. Email: ygzhu@iue.ac.cn; kevin.francesconi@uni-graz.at
Environmental Chemistry 11(5) 506-513 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN14069
Submitted: 1 April 2014 Accepted: 19 May 2014 Published: 16 September 2014
Journal Compilation © CSIRO Publishing 2014 Open Access CC BY-NC-ND
Environmental context. Arsenic biotransformation processes play a key role in the cycling of arsenic in aquatic systems. We show that a freshwater cyanobacterium can convert inorganic arsenic into arsenolipids, and the conversion efficiency depends on the arsenic concentration. The role of these novel arsenic compounds remains to be elucidated.
Abstract. Although methylated arsenic and arsenosugars have been verified in various freshwater organisms, lipid-soluble arsenic compounds have not been identified. Here, we report investigations with the model organism cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 wild type and ΔarsM (arsenic(III) S-adenosylmethionine methyltransferase) mutant strain, which lacks the enzymes for arsenic methylation cultured in various concentrations of arsenate (AsV). Although Synechocystis accumulated higher arsenic concentrations at the higher exposure levels, the bioaccumulation factor decreased with increasing AsV. The accumulated arsenic in the cells was partitioned into water-soluble and lipid-soluble fractions; lipid-soluble arsenic was found in Synechocystis wild type cells (3–35 % of the total depending on the level of arsenic exposure), but was not detected in Synechocystis ΔarsM mutant strain showing that ArsM was required for arsenolipid biosynthesis. The arsenolipids present in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 were analysed by high performance liquid chromatography–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry, high performance liquid chromatography–electrospray mass spectrometry, and high resolution tandem mass spectrometry. The two major arsenolipids were characterised as arsenosugar phospholipids based on their assigned molecular formulas C47H88O14AsP and C47H90O14AsP, and tandem mass spectrometric data demonstrated the presence of the phosphate arsenosugar and acylated glycerol groups.
Additional keyword: arsenic.
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