%0 Journal Article
%T Mechanisms of Metal Resistance and Homeostasis in Haloarchaea
%A Pallavee Srivastava
%A Meenal Kowshik
%J Archaea
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/732864
%X Haloarchaea are the predominant microflora of hypersaline econiches such as solar salterns, soda lakes, and estuaries where the salinity ranges from 35 to 400£¿ppt. Econiches like estuaries and solar crystallizer ponds may contain high concentrations of metals since they serve as ecological sinks for metal pollution and also as effective traps for river borne metals. The availability of metals in these econiches is determined by the type of metal complexes formed and the solubility of the metal species at such high salinity. Haloarchaea have developed specialized mechanisms for the uptake of metals required for various key physiological processes and are not readily available at high salinity, beside evolving resistance mechanisms for metals with high solubility. The present paper seeks to give an overview of the main molecular mechanisms involved in metal tolerance in haloarchaea and focuses on factors such as salinity and metal speciation that affect the bioavailability of metals to haloarchaea. Global transcriptomic analysis during metal stress in these organisms will help in determining the various factors differentially regulated and essential for metal physiology. 1. Introduction Many metal ions have a key role in the physiology of cells. Metals such as calcium, cobalt, chromium, copper, iron, potassium, magnesium, manganese, sodium, nickel, and zinc are essential and serve as micronutrients. These metals act as the redox centers for metalloproteins such as cytochromes, blue copper proteins, and iron-sulfur proteins which play a vital role in electron transport [1]. As the transition metals exist in numerous oxidation states, they efficiently act as electron carriers during redox reactions of electron transport chains to generate chemical energy [2, 3]. Metal ions also function as cofactors and confer catalytic potential and stability to proteins [4]. Other metals like silver, mercury, lead, aluminum, cadmium, gold, and arsenic have no biological roles and are potentially toxic to microbes [5]. The toxicity is exerted by the displacement of essential metals from native binding sites or through ligand interactions [6]. Both essential and nonessential metals at high concentrations disrupt cell membrane, alter enzymatic specificity, hinder cellular functions, and damage DNA [5]. Thus, as any disturbance in metal ion homeostasis could produce toxic effects on cell viability, the concentrations of metals within cells are stringently controlled. An increase in the ambient metal concentration leads to activation of metal resistance mechanisms to overcome
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/archaea/2013/732864/