Molecular adaptation and salt stress response of Halobacterium salinarum cells revealed by neutron spectroscopy

Halobacterium salinarum is an extreme halophile archaeon with an absolute requirement for a multimolar salt environment. It accumulates molar concentrations of KCl in the cytosol to counterbalance the external osmotic pressure imposed by the molar NaCl. As a consequence, cytosolic proteins are permanently exposed to low water activity and highly ionic conditions. In non-adapted systems, such conditions would promote protein aggregation, precipitation, and denaturation. In contrast, in vitro studies showed that proteins from extreme halophilic cells are themselves obligate halophiles. In this paper, adaptation via dynamics to low-salt stress in H. salinarum cells was measured by neutron scattering experiments coupled with microbiological characterization. The molecular dynamic properties of a proteome represent a good indicator for environmental adaptation and the neutron/microbiology approach has been shown to be well tailored to characterize these modifications. In their natural setting, halophilic organisms often have to face important variations in environmental salt concentration. The results showed deleterious effects already occur in the H. salinarum proteome, even when the external salt concentration is still relatively high, suggesting the onset of survival mechanisms quite early when the environmental salt concentration decreases.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by a grant form the CNRS interdisciplinary program “Environnements Planétaire et Origine du Vivant” (EPOV). V. M. was supported by a PhD grant from the French Ministry for Research and Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

1. Institut de Biologie Structurale (IBS), University Grenoble Alpes, 38027, Grenoble, France Pierre Vauclare, Vincent Marty, Elisa Fabiani, Nicolas Martinez, Frank Gabel, Judith Peters, Giuseppe Zaccai & Bruno Franzetti
2. CNRS, IBS, 38027, Grenoble, France Pierre Vauclare, Vincent Marty, Elisa Fabiani, Nicolas Martinez, Frank Gabel & Bruno Franzetti
3. CEA, DSV, IBS, 38027, Grenoble, France Pierre Vauclare, Vincent Marty, Elisa Fabiani, Nicolas Martinez, Frank Gabel & Bruno Franzetti
4. Institut Laue Langevin, B.P. 156X, 38042, Grenoble Cedex 9, France Elisa Fabiani, Nicolas Martinez, Marion Jasnin, Judith Peters & Giuseppe Zaccai
5. Institut de Biologie Structurale, 71 avenue des Martyrs, CS 10090, 38044, Grenoble Cedex 9, France Bruno Franzetti

1. Pierre Vauclare