Decreasing peptide deformylase activity is a beneficial strategy for increasing formaldehyde resistance in <i>Methylobacterium extorquens</i>

allele selectively alleviates exogenous, but not endogenous, formaldehyde stress and identify a tradeoff in heat shock resistance. This study reports the first observation of lowered PDF activity benefiting a cellular physiological phenotype. Our work indicates that altered protein metabolism can mitigate the toxic effects of formaldehyde and furthers our understanding of the strategies that can protect cells from formaldehyde-induced damage. Importance: , which naturally generates high levels of formaldehyde as part of its growth on simple carbon compounds. We show herein that a single genetic change, which slows down how newly made proteins are processed during translation, can unexpectedly improve the bacterium's ability to resist formaldehyde stress. Further, we show that this single change has numerous effects on the cell, many of which may contribute to formaldehyde resistance.