Investigation on the anaerobic propionate degradation by Escherichia coli K12

Propionate is an abundant carboxylic acid in nature. Microorganisms metabolize propionate aerobically via the 2-methylcitrate pathway. This pathway depends on a series of three reactions in the citric acid cycle that leads to the conversion of succinate to oxaloacetate. Interestingly, the gamma-proteobacterium Escherichia coli can use propionate as a carbon and electron source under oxic but not under anoxic conditions. The typical downregulation of the citric acid cycle under anoxic conditions is only partially responsible for the inability to use propionate under anoxic conditions since an arcA mutant  shows very limited growth on propionate. RT-PCR and transcriptomic analysis revealed a post-transcriptional regulation of the prp-genecluster encoding the necessary enzymes for propionate metabolism. The polycistronic mRNA was hydrolyzed in the 3`-5` direction under anoxic conditions. This regulatory strategy is highly constructive because the last gene of the operon encodes the first enzyme of the propionate metabolism. Further analysis revealed that RNase R catalyzes the hydrolysis of the prp transcripts. Consequently, an rnr-deletion strain could metabolize propionate under anoxic conditions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study describing the influence of RNase R on the anaerobic metabolism of E. coli. Overall design: RNA-seq of E. coli K12 wild type and delta-rnr mutant under aerobic and anaerobic growth with and without propionate. Duplicate samples for each condition.