Adaptive evolution of Corynebacterium glutamicum resistant to oxidative stress and its global gene expression profiling

Corynebacterium glutamicum was adapted in a chemostat for 1,900 h with gradually increasing H2O2 stress to understand the oxidative stress response of an industrial host. After 411 generations of adaptation, C. glutamicum developed the ability to grow under stress of 10 mM H2O2, whereas the wild-type did not. The adapted strain also showed increased stress resistance to diamide and menadione, SDS, Tween 20, HCl, NaOH, and ampicillin. A total of 1,180 genes in the RNA-seq transcriptome analysis of the adapted strain were up-regulated twice or higher (corresponding to 38.6 % of the genome), and 126 genes were down-regulated half or less (4.1 % of genome) under 10 mM H2O2-stress conditions compared with those of the wild-type under a no stress condition. Especially the aromatic compound-degrading gene clusters (vanRABK, pcaJIRFLO, and benABCDRKE) were more than threefold up-regulated. Plausible reasons for the H2O2-stress tolerance of the adapted strain are discussed as well as the potential strategy for development of oxidative stress-tolerant strain.