ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Extreme Microbiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1643593
This article is part of the Research TopicLife Under Pressure: Microbial Adaptation and Survival in High Pressure EnvironmentsView all 9 articles
High hydrostatic pressure enhanced the growth of deep-sea Thermococcus aciditolerans by promoting the reduction of elemental sulfur
Provisionally accepted
- 1Institute of Deep-Sea Science and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Sanya, China
- 2Beijing Proteome Research Center, Beijing, China
- 3Aix-Marseille Universite, Marseille, France
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Thermococcus species are ubiquitously distributed across both shallow and deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems. Elemental sulfur (S⁰) reduction plays a pivotal role in their energy metabolism. While extensive characterization of the MBS and MBH pathways, along with their SurR-dependent regulatory network, has been established in shallow-water model strains, understanding of the high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) and sulfur-responsive regulation of these pathways in deep-sea Thermococcus lineages remains limited. In this study, we investigated the effects of HHP on both growth and S⁰ reduction in the deep-sea SY113 strain, as well as its regulatory impact on mbs and mbh expression. Our results demonstrate that HHP enhances both S⁰ reduction and growth in SY113 strain, independent of the general regulator SurR. Genetic disruption of mbsL significantly impaired H₂S production and growth under HHP conditions, establishing the essential role of S⁰ reduction in HHP adaptation. Furthermore, disrupted mbhL1 gene confirmed that a single MBS complex is sufficient to maintain pressure-stimulated growth. The gene expression analysis revealed that the expression of mbsL gene is primarily promoted by S⁰, while the expression of mbhL1 gene is induced by HHP. Moreover, the expression of these genes exhibits correlation. Additionally, we found that the expression of mbsL gene, mbhL1 gene, and mbhL2 gene in SY113 strain is not only regulated by SurR, and HHP also plays a role in modulating the expression of these genes. Overall, the sulfur responsive regulation of gene expression in SY113 strain distinguishes from that in the shallow model strains, which implies an adaptive strategy for Thermococcus species used to dwell in the deep-sea hydrothermal vent.
Keywords: Thermococcus aciditolerans SY113, high hydrostatic pressure, Elemental sulfur reduction, Membrane-bound sulfane reductase, Membrane-bound hydrogenase, SurR
Received: 09 Jun 2025; Accepted: 25 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jiao, Li, ZHANG, Zhang, Bai, Fu and Wu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xue-Gong Li, Institute of Deep-Sea Science and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Sanya, China
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