An important role for periplasmic storage in Pseudomonas aeruginosa copper homeostasis revealed by a combined experimental and computational modeling study.

Jignesh H Parmar
Julia Quintana
David Ramírez
Reinhard Laubenbacher, The Jackson Laboratory
José M Argüello
Pedro Mendes

Abstract

Biological systems require precise copper homeostasis enabling metallation of cuproproteins while preventing metal toxicity. In bacteria, sensing, transport and storage molecules act in coordination to fulfill these roles. However, there is not yet a kinetic schema explaining the system integration. Here, we report a model emerging from experimental and computational approaches that describes the dynamics of copper distribution in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Based on copper uptake experiments, a minimal kinetic model describes well the copper distribution in the wild type bacteria but is unable to explain the behavior of the mutant strain lacking CopA1, a key Cu