Oxidative Stress Defense and Deterioration of Growth-arrestedEscherichia coli Cells*

Analysis of protein carbonylation demonstrates that the stasis-induced catalases and cytoplasmic superoxide dismutases (SOD) have a role in preventing accelerated protein oxidation during growth arrest of Escherichia coli cells. A larger number of proteins are carbonylated in cells lacking cytoplasmic SOD compared with cells lacking catalases, OxyR, or RpoS which, in turn, exhibit a larger number of oxidized proteins than the wild-type parent. Proteins exclusively oxidized during stasis in mutants lacking cytoplasmic SOD include GroEL, EF-G, and the acidic isoform of H-NS indicating that these mutants experience problems in peptide elongation and maintaining protein and DNA architecture. These mutants also survive stasis poorly. Likewise, but to a much lesser extent, mutations in oxyR, an oxidative stress regulator, shorten the life-span of stationary phase cells. The low plating efficiency of cells lacking OxyR is the result of their inability to grow on standard culture plates unless plating is performed anaerobically or with high concentration of catalase. In contrast, cells lacking cytoplasmic SOD appear to die prior to plating. Our data points to the importance of oxidative stress defense in stasis survival, and we also demonstrate that the life-span of growth-arrested wild-type E. coli cells can be significantly extended by omitting oxygen.