Study on the Mechanism of Cold Tolerance of the Strain Shewanella putrefaciens WS13 Through Fatty Acid Metabolism

Abstract

In order to investigate the cold tolerance mechanism of Shewanella, the whole genome of strain Shewanella putrefaciens WS13 was used to study the comparative genome related to cold tolerance of Shewanella . By comparing and analyzing the key enzymes involved in the process of lipid synthesis with those of other psychrophilic and non-psychrophilic bacteria, the results showed that in S. putrefaciens WS13, the genes fabA, fabB, fabD, fabF, fabG, fabH and fabZ, as the key enzymes of fatty acid synthesis, were found in the target strain, but the gene fabI did not exist in the type II fatty acid synthesis pathway. However, due to the absence of the key enzyme fabI gene, the synthesis process of saturated fatty acids will be blocked, and the pathway of unsaturated fatty acid synthesis still exists, which leads to the bacteria Shewanella start to synthesize a large number of unsaturated fatty acids, thus increasing the synthesis of unsaturated fatty acids and reducing the synthesis of saturated fatty acids. It is precisely because unsaturated fatty acids have lower phase transition temperature than that saturated fatty acids have, which can increase the fluidity of biofilm, so that Shewanella has better cold adaptability than that other bacteria have. It is a complex biological process for microorganisms to adapt to the environment, and the biosynthesis of fatty acids is only one aspect. However, the mechanism of cold adaptation of Shewanella in other aspects remains to be further discussed.