1997). The ultrastructure of R. capsulatus fnrL null mutant bacteria, strains RGK295 and 296 (Table 1), was evaluated by preparing thin sections of cells cultured under low-oxygen conditions and examining them using TEM (Fig. 4B). In contrast to the abnormal appearance of R. sphaeroides FnrL− mutant bacterial cell membranes (Fig. 4A), the membrane morphology of R. capsulatus FnrL− bacteria appeared similar to the FnrL+ parent strain SB1003 (Table 1). Therefore, for R. capsulatus, the absence of FnrL apparently did not affect ICM formation.

This predicts that there are genes necessary for ICM development in R. sphaeroides whose transcription is regulated by FnrL, but that in R. capsulatus are not FnrL-dependent (or absent). Discussion Transcriptomic and proteomic investigations have provided AMPK inhibitor insights into regulatory events that are mediated by PrrA, PpsR, and mTOR inhibitor FnrL as R. sphaeroides responds to changes in oxygen availability (reviewed in Gomelsky and Zeilstra-Ryalls 2013). Spectral analysis has also been a useful tool in studying the roles of these DNA binding proteins in the formation of pigment–protein complexes. This study of membrane structure in mutants missing one or more of these global regulators has provided a different perspective and has generated new findings. Based on the TEM results, the prr genes are required for normal ICM formation. An unanticipated and

novel discovery made during these studies was the ultrastructural differences of low-oxygen cells with defective prrA genes versus those in which the entire prr gene cluster is absent. The presence of ICM-like structures in prrA null mutant bacteria and their absence in prrBCA − bacteria suggests that PrrB and/or PrrC may participate in regulation of genes associated with ICM formation that does not involve PrrA activity. To what degree these ICM-like structures resemble true ICM will require an in-depth analysis of their molecular composition. While for cells cultured anaerobically in the dark transcriptomic and proteomic data are available,

which could be used as a guide to direct us to potentially important genes regulated by PrrA involved in ICM formation, there is currently no similar data available at the Coproporphyrinogen III oxidase genome wide level for PrrB or C, nor for cells grown under low-oxygen conditions. Before this investigation, the presence of such structures, and so the need for such information was not evident, since other methods used to evaluate the physiological status of R. sphaeroides, such as comparisons of growth rates or even spectral analyses, gave no indication that there were any differences between cells lacking prrA alone versus those lacking all three prr genes under any condition. It is possible that the ultrastructure differences might be selleckchem explained by cross-talk or branched regulation between PrrB and a non-cognate response regulatory protein.