Superoxide, hydrogen peroxide, and oxygen tolerance of oxygen-sensitive mutants of Escherichia coli

Oxygen-intolerant mutants of Escherichia coli K12 were selected by a replica plating technique after treatment with the mutagen, N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine, to a lethality of 99.5%. One group of mutants had lost the ability to induce both peroxidase and catalase when exposed to oxygen but retained the ability to induce the manganese-superoxide dismutase. The second group of mutants had lost the ability to induce the activity of all these enzymes. Failure to induce peroxidase and catalase was associated with enhanced susceptibility of the bacteria to the lethal effect of oxygen. When a member of the first group of mutants was prevented from producing the manganese-superoxide dismutase by the presence of puromycin, its susceptibility to the lethal effects of oxygen was greatly increased. Two types of revertants were seen. In one group the ability to induce enzyme activity was recovered and was accompanied by the return of oxygen tolerance. Members of the other group lost the ability to respire and, therefore, no longer produced O2- AND H2O2. These results indicated that enzymic scavenging of both H2O2 and O2- provides an important defense against oxygen toxicity. The parallel loss of peroxidase and catalase, which was seen in all mutants, suggests that these enzymes constitute a precursor-product pair in E. coli. The parallel loss in two of these mutants of peroxidase, catalase, and the manganese-superoxide dismutase suggests a control linkage for these enzymes, the basis of which remains to be explored.