Rhodobacter capsulatus synthesizes the high-affinity ABC transporters CysTWA and ModABC to specifically import the chemically related oxyanions sulfate and molybdate, respectively. In addition, R. capsulatus has the low-affinity permease PerO acting as a general oxyanion transporter, whose elimination increases tolerance to molybdate and tungstate. Although PerO-like permeases are widespread in bacteria, their function has not been examined in any other species to date. Here, we present evidence that PerO permeases from the alphaproteobacteria Agrobacterium tumefaciens, Dinoroseobacter shibae, Rhodobacter sphaeroides, and Sinorhizobium meliloti and the gammaproteobacterium Pseudomonas stutzeri functionally substitute for R. capsulatus PerO in sulfate uptake and sulfate-dependent growth, as shown by assimilation of radioactively labeled sulfate and heterologous complementation. Disruption of perO genes in A. tumefaciens, R. sphaeroides, and S. meliloti increased tolerance to tungstate and, in the case of R. sphaeroides, to molybdate, suggesting that heterometal oxyanions are common substrates of PerO permeases. This study supports the view that bacterial PerO permeases typically transport sulfate and related oxyanions and, hence, form a functionally conserved permease family.IMPORTANCE Despite the widespread distribution of PerO-like permeases in bacteria, our knowledge about PerO function until now was limited to one species, Rhodobacter capsulatus. In this study, we showed that PerO proteins from diverse bacteria are functionally similar to the R. capsulatus prototype, suggesting that PerO permeases form a conserved family whose members transport sulfate and related oxyanions.KEYWORDS transport, sulfate, molybdate, tungstate, oxyanions, permease, PerO, Rhodobacter, ABC transporters T he oxyanions sulfate (SO 4 2-) and molybdate (MoO 4 2-) are the preferred sources for sulfur and molybdenum, respectively, in bacteria. To specifically import these structurally similar oxyanions, Escherichia coli synthesizes the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters CysPTWA and ModABC (1, 2). ABC uptake systems consist of a periplasmic substrate binding protein, a transmembrane channel protein, and a cytoplasmic ATP-binding protein, which provides the energy for active substrate transport across the cytoplasmic membrane against a concentration gradient (3). In addition to molybdate, ModABC imports tungstate (WO 4 2-) but not sulfate (4, 5). In addition to sulfate, CysPTWA imports molybdate, albeit less efficiently than its primary substrate sulfate (6, 7).Recently, we described the permease PerO mediating transport of sulfate, molybdate, and tungstate in the photosynthetic purple nonsulfur bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus (8). PerO belongs to the ArsB/NhaD ion transporter superfamily, whose members encompass 10 to 13 transmembrane domains and have diverse functions such as arsenite export, citrate/succinate antiport, and Na ϩ /H ϩ antiport. PerO contains two central TrkA_C domains, making this permease considerably larg...