Redox state dynamics of ubiquinone-10 imply cooperative regulation of photosynthetic membrane expression in Rhodospirillum rubrum

It is now well-established that for photosynthetic bacteria, the aerobic-to-microaerophilic transition activates the membrane-bound sensor kinase RegB, which subsequently phosphorylates the transcriptional activator RegA, thereby inducing elevated levels of intracellular photosynthetic membranes. The mechanism of RegB activation, in particular the role of ubiquinone-10 is controversial at present. One problem here is that very limited quantitative in vivo data for the response of the ubiquinone redox state to different cultivation conditions exist. Here, we utilize Rhodospirillum rubrum, to study the correlation of the quinone redox state to the expression level of photosynthetic membranes and determine an effective response function directly. Our results show that changes in the photosynthetic membrane levels between 50-95 % of that maximally attainable are associated with only a 2-fold change in the ubiquinol/ubiquinone ratio and are not necessarily proportional to either the total levels of quinone or [NAD(+)+NADH]. There is no correlation between the redox potentials of the quinone and pyridine nucleotide pools. Hill function analysis of the photosynthetic membrane induction in response to the quinone redox state suggests that the induction process is highly cooperative. Our results are probably generally applicable to quinone redox regulation in bacteria. Copyright (c) 2008, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved. [accessed July 8, 2008