Phenylalanine induces Burkholderia cenocepacia phenylacetic acid catabolism through degradation to phenylacetyl-CoA in synthetic cystic fibrosis sputum medium

Synthetic cystic fibrosis sputum medium (SCFM) is rich in amino acids and supports robust growth of Burkholderia cenocepacia, a member of the Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc). Previous work demonstrated that B. cenocepacia phenylacetic acid (PA) catabolic genes are up-regulated during growth in SCFM and are required for full virulence in a Caenorhabditis elegans host model. In this work, we investigated the role of phenylalanine, one of the aromatic amino acids present in SCFM, as an inducer of the PA catabolic pathway. Phenylalanine degradation intermediates were used as sole carbon sources for growth and gene reporter experiments. In addition to phenylalanine and PA, phenylethylamine, phenylpyruvate, and 2-phenylacetamide were usable as sole carbon sources by wild type B. cenocepacia K56-2, but not by a PA catabolism-defective mutant. EMSA analysis showed that the binding of PaaR, the negative regulator protein of B. cenocepacia PA catabolism, to PA regulatory DNA could only be relieved by phenylacetyl-Coenzyme A (PA-CoA), but not by any of the putative phenylalanine degradation intermediates. Taken together, our results show that in B. cenocepacia, phenylalanine is catabolized to PA and induces PA catabolism through PA activation to PA-CoA. Thus, PaaR shares the same inducer with PaaX, the regulator of PA catabolism in Escherichia coli, despite belonging to a different protein family.