The response to individual deletion of two transptional repressor genes in Hyphomicrobium denitrificans

Bacteria use different strategies to sense and respond to reduced sulfur compounds such as sulfide or thiosulfate. In the methylotrophic Alphaproteobacterium Hyphomicrobium denitrificans, which uses thiosulfate as an accessory electron donor, this involves two distinct but related ArsR-type transcriptional repressors, sHdrR and SoxR. Here, we focused on identifying target genes regulated by these repressors. This was achieved by generating individual deletions of each regulator gene, and performing comparative RNA-seq analysis. Overall design: To identify SoxR and sHdrR-regulated genes, we performed an RNA-sequencing transcriptomic analysis of strains H. denitrificans ?tsdA ?soxR and H. denitrificans ?tsdA ?shdrR. In a previous project (accession number GSE278992), we have identified thiosulfate-inducible genes in the reference strain H. denitrificans ?tsdA. This strain lacks the tetrathionate-forming enzyme thiosulfate dehydrogenase. Here, we identified SoxR and sHdrR regulated genes by comparing expression levels in the reference strain vs. the repressor-deficient strains grown on methanol-containing medium under aerobic conditions in the absence of thiosulfate.