Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:1.7.1.4 (nitrite reductase)
 1,847 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Rhizobium "hedysari" HCNT1 is an unclassified rhizobium which contains a nitric oxide-producing nitrite reductase but is apparently incapable of coupling the reduction of nitrite to energy conservation. The gene encoding the nitrite reductase, nirK, has been cloned and sequenced and was found to encode a protein closely related to the copper-containing family of nitrite reductases. Unlike other members of this family, nirK expression in HCNT1 is not dependent on the presence of nitrogen oxides, being dependent only on oxygen concentration. Oxygen respiration of microaerobically grown Nir-deficient cells is not affected by concentrations of nitrite that completely inhibit oxygen respiration in wild-type cells. This loss of sensitivity suggests that the product of nitrite reductase, nitric oxide, is responsible for inhibition of oxygen respiration. By using a newly developed chemically modified electrode to detect nitric oxide, it was found that nitrite reduction by HCNT1 produces significantly higher nitric oxide concentrations than are observed in true denitrifiers. This indicates that nitrite reductase is the only nitrogen oxide reductase active in HCNT1. The capacity to generate such large concentrations of freely diffusible nitric oxide as a consequence of nitrite respiration makes HCNT1 unique among bacteria.
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PMID:Characterization of the gene encoding nitrite reductase and the physiological consequences of its expression in the nondenitrifying Rhizobium "hedysari" strain HCNT1. 889 92

Most denitrifying bacteria reduce nitrate to the inert gases nitrous oxide or nitrogen. A remarkable exception to this is Rhizobium sullae strain HCNT1, which catalyses only a single step in the denitrification pathway, the reduction of nitrite to the reactive molecule nitric oxide. Further study demonstrated that HCNT1 does not encode the genes for NO reductase. Prolonged incubation of HCNT1 under anoxic conditions revealed that the cells had reduced culturability but not viability when nitrite was present. This may indicate an adaptation to anoxic conditions to provide resistance to environmental stresses. A closely related strain of R. sullae, strain CC1335, which is unable to denitrify, was found to lose culturability but not viability irrespective of the presence of nitrite. When the gene for nitrite reductase was mobilized into CC1335, this increased culturability with or without nitrite. These results indicate that the presence of nitrite reductase can influence the long-term survival of R. sullae strains and may provide an explanation as to why HCNT1 possesses this unusual truncation of its denitrification electron transport chain.
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PMID:Investigation into the role of the truncated denitrification chain in Rhizobium sullae strain HCNT1. 1641 1

Rhizobium sullae strain HCNT1 contains a nitric oxide-producing nitrite reductase of unknown function due to the absence of a complementary nitric oxide reductase. HCNT1 had the ability to grow on selenite concentrations as high as 50 mM, and during growth, selenite was reduced to the less toxic elemental selenium. An HCNT1 mutant lacking nitrite reductase grew poorly in the presence of 5 mM selenite, was unable to grow in the presence of 25 or 50 mM selenite and also showed no evidence of selenite reduction. A naturally occurring nitrite reductase-deficient R. sullae strain, CC1335, also showed little growth on the higher concentrations of selenite. Mobilization of a plasmid containing the HCNT1 gene encoding nitrite reductase into CC1335 increased its resistance to selenite. To confirm that this ability to grow in the presence of high concentrations of selenite correlated with nitrite reductase activity, a new nitrite reductase-containing strain was isolated from the same location where HCNT1 was isolated. This strain was also resistant to high concentrations of selenite. Inactivation of the gene encoding nitrite reductase in this strain increased selenite sensitivity. These data suggest that the nitrite reductase of R. sullae provides resistance to selenite and offers an explanation for the radically truncated denitrification found uniquely in this bacterium.
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PMID:Selenite-reducing capacity of the copper-containing nitrite reductase of Rhizobium sullae. 1722 57