The activity of the Synechocystis PCC6803 AbrB2 regulator of hydrogen production can be post-translationally controlled through glutathionylation

We show that the Synechocystis AbrB2 repressor of hydrogen production, down regulates the defence against oxidative stress. The single widely conserved cysteine of AbrB2 is also shown to play a crucial role in AbrB2 oligomerisation, and in AbrB2-mediated repression of the hydrogenase encoding operon (hoxEFUYH) and a wealth of other genes. Very interestingly, our results indicate that this cysteine is the target of glutathionylation, which affects the binding of AbrB2 on the hox operon-promoter DNA, as well as the stability of AbrB2 at the non-standard temperature of 39 °C. Similarly, we show that the cysteine of the other hoxEFUYH regulator AbrB1 can also be glutathionylated in vitro. These novel findings will certainly stimulate the in depth analysis of the influence of glutathionylation on the production of hydrogen, a field totally overlooked so far. They also emphasize on the evolutionary conservation of glutathionylation, a process mostly described in eukaryotes, so far.