e Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) from human pathogens Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa can be readily inhibited by reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated direct oxidation of their catalytic active cysteines. Because of the rapid degradation of H 2 O 2 by bacterial catalase, only steady-state but not one-dose treatment with H 2 O 2 rapidly induces glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP). We conducted transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) analyses to globally profile the bacterial transcriptomes in response to a steady level of H 2 O 2 , which revealed profound transcriptional changes, including the induced expression of glycolytic genes in both bacteria. Our results revealed that the inactivation of GAPDH by H 2 O 2 induces metabolic levels of glycolysis and the PPP; the elevated levels of fructose 1,6-biphosphate (FBP) and 2-keto-3-deoxy-6-phosphogluconate (KDPG) lead to dissociation of their corresponding glycolytic repressors (GapR and HexR, respectively) from their cognate promoters, thus resulting in derepression of the glycolytic genes to overcome H 2 O 2 -stalled glycolysis in S. aureus and P. aeruginosa, respectively. Both GapR and HexR may directly sense oxidative stresses, such as menadione.
P athogenic bacteria, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa andStaphylococcus aureus, need to conquer high concentrations of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that are produced by host phagocytic cells for sustained virulence (1). To this end, these bacteria use ROS-reactive small molecules, such as glutathione (GSH) and melanin in P. aeruginosa as well as coenzyme A and staphyloxanthin in S. aureus. These pathogens also produce a group of ROSdetoxifying enzymes, such as catalase, superoxide dismutase, hydroperoxide reductase, thioredoxin, and glutaredoxin, whose expression is induced by oxidative stress (2-4).It has been well documented that P. aeruginosa and S. aureus also mount global transcriptional changes by utilizing a group of thiol-based ROS-active transcription regulators, such as OxyR, SoxR, MgrA, OhrR, SarA, SarZ, MexR, OspR, CymR, AirSR, and AgrA (5-15). Upon oxidative stress, the specific cysteine groups in these regulatory proteins form sulfenic acids or disulfides, thus inducing conformational changes that attenuate their DNA binding affinities. Our previous work showed that a thiol-based, oxidation-sensing mechanism is utilized by these human pathogens to sense the host immune response and regulate a global change of their properties. ROS leads to activation of defense systems to reduce the oxidative threat as well as a major shift in the life forms of the pathogens (6, 11).ROS can efficiently oxidize the thiol group of active and allosteric cysteines in bacterial proteins, causing changes in their functions. Previously, we employed an isotopic orthogonal proteolysis-activity-based protein profiling (isoTOP-ABPP) technology to identify around 200 oxidation-sensitive cysteines and further determined that several of these proteins perform important redox-active functions...