Role of respiration and glutathione in cadmium-induced oxidative stress in Escherichia coli K-12

Cadmium is a widespread pollutant that has been associated with oxidative stress, but the mechanism behind this effect in prokaryotes is still unclear. In this work, we exposed two glutathione deficient mutants (Delta gshA and Delta gshB) and one respiration deficient mutant (Delta ubiE) to a sublethal concentration of cadmium. The glutathione mutants show a similar increase in reactive oxygen species as the wild type. Experiments performed using the Delta ubiE strain showed that this mutant is more resistant to cadmium ions and that Cd-induced reactive oxygen species levels were not altered. In the light of these facts, we conclude that the interference of cadmium with the respiratory chain is the cause of the oxidative stress induced by this metal and that, contrary to previously proposed models, the reactive oxygen species increase is not due to glutathione depletion, although this peptide is crucial for cadmium detoxification.