Entry into and Release of Solvents by Escherichia coli in an Organic-Aqueous Two-Liquid-Phase System and Substrate Specificity of the AcrAB-TolC Solvent-Extruding Pump

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American Society for Microbiology

RESUMO

Growth of Escherichia coli is inhibited upon exposure to a large volume of a harmful solvent, and there is an inverse correlation between the degree of inhibition and the log POW of the solvent, where POW is the partition coefficient measured for the partition equilibrium established between the n-octanol and water phases. The AcrAB-TolC efflux pump system is involved in maintaining intrinsic solvent resistance. We inspected the solvent resistance of ΔacrAB and/or ΔtolC mutants in the presence of a large volume of solvent. Both mutants were hypersensitive to weakly harmful solvents, such as nonane (log POW = 5.5). The ΔtolC mutant was more sensitive to nonane than the ΔacrAB mutant. The solvent entered the E. coli cells rapidly. Entry of solvents with a log POW higher than 4.4 was retarded in the parent cells, and the intracellular levels of these solvents were maintained at low levels. The ΔtolC mutant accumulated n-nonane or decane (log POW = 6.0) more abundantly than the parent or the ΔacrAB mutant. The AcrAB-TolC complex likely extrudes solvents with a log POW in the range of 3.4 to 6.0 through a first-order reaction. The most favorable substrates for the efflux system were considered to be octane, heptane, and n-hexane.

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