Structure and regulatory targets of SCO3201, a highly promiscuous TetR-like regulator of Streptomyces coelicolor M145

TetR and OmpR family regulators in natural product biosynthesis and resistance

This article provides a comprehensive review and sequence-structure analysis of transcription regulator (TR) families, TetR and OmpR/PhoB, involved in specialized secondary metabolite (SSM) biosynthesis and resistance. Transcription regulation is a fundamental process, playing a crucial role in orchestrating gene expression to confer a survival advantage in response to frequent environmental stress conditions. This process, coupled with signal sensing, enables bacteria to respond to a diverse range of intra and extracellular signals. Thus, major bacterial signaling systems use a receptor domain to sense chemical stimuli along with an output domain responsible for transcription regulation through DNA-binding. Sensory and output domains on a single polypeptide chain (one component system, OCS) allow response to stimuli by allostery, that is, DNA-binding affinity modulation upon signal presence/absence. On the other hand, two component systems (TCSs) allow cross-talk between the sensory and output domains as they are disjoint and transmit information by phosphorelay to mount a response. In both cases, however, TRs play a central role. Biosynthesis of SSMs, which includes antibiotics, is heavily regulated by TRs as it diverts the cell's resources towards the production of these expendable compounds, which also have clinical applications. These TRs have evolved to relay information across specific signals and target genes, thus providing a rich source of unique mechanisms to explore towards addressing the rapid escalation in antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Here, we focus on the TetR and OmpR family TRs, which belong to OCS and TCS, respectively. These TR families are well-known examples of regulators in secondary metabolism and are ubiquitous across different bacteria, as they also participate in a myriad of cellular processes apart from SSM biosynthesis and resistance. As a result, these families exhibit higher sequence divergence, which is also evident from our bioinformatic analysis of 158 389 and 77 437 sequences from TetR and OmpR family TRs, respectively. The analysis of both sequence and structure allowed us to identify novel motifs in addition to the known motifs responsible for TR function and its structural integrity. Understanding the diverse mechanisms employed by these TRs is essential for unraveling the biosynthesis of SSMs. This can also help exploit their regulatory role in biosynthesis for significant pharmaceutical, agricultural, and industrial applications.

RS24090, a TetR family transcriptional repressor, negatively affects the rimocidin biosynthesis in Streptomyces rimosus M527

The TetR family of regulators (TFRs), commonly reported as repressors, plays a role in regulating secondary metabolite production in Streptomyces. In this study, we sought to elucidate the relationship between TFRs and rimocidin production of Streptomyces rimosus M527. Through transcriptomic analysis, we identified the protein RS24090, which exhibited significant differential expression. Phylogenetic analysis of its amino acid sequence and structural alignment predicted it to be a TetR family regulator. Thus, RS24090 was named TetR24. The role of TetR24 in biosynthesis of rimocidin was verified through gene-deletion, -complementation, and -overexpression experiments. The TetR24 gene-deletion mutant (ΔTetR24), which was generated using CRISPR/Cas9 technology, produced 38.08 % more rimocidin than the wild-type (WT) strain M527. Complementary expression of the TetR24 gene in the mutant ΔTetR24 restored rimocidin production to levels comparable to the WT strain. In contrast, the recombinant strain M527-TetR24, which harbored an overexpression of the TetR24 gene, exhibited a 40.31 % decrease in rimocidin production compared to the WT strain. A similar trend in the transcription levels of the rim genes (rimA, rimC, rimG, rimR1, and rimR2), all located in the rimocidin biosynthetic gene cluster, was revealed by quantitative RT-PCR analysis in M527-ΔTetR24, M527-ΔTetR24::TetR24, and M527-TetR24. EMSA and DNase I footprinting assays confirmed that TetR24 regulates the transcription of rim genes by binding to promoter regions of rimA and rimR2.

Crystal structures of free and ligand-bound forms of the TetR/AcrR-like regulator SCO3201 from Streptomyces coelicolor suggest a novel allosteric mechanism

TetR/AcrR-like transcription regulators enable bacteria to sense a wide variety of chemical compounds and to dynamically adapt the expression levels of specific genes in response to changing growth conditions. Here, we describe the structural characterisation of SCO3201, an atypical TetR/AcrR family member from Streptomyces coelicolor that strongly represses antibiotic production and morphological development under conditions of overexpression. We present crystal structures of SCO3201 in its ligand-free state as well as in complex with an unknown inducer, potentially a polyamine. In the ligand-free state, the DNA-binding domains of the SCO3201 dimer are held together in an unusually compact conformation and, as a result, the regulator cannot span the distance between the two half-sites of its operator. Interaction with the ligand coincides with a major structural rearrangement and partial conversion of the so-called hinge helix (α4) to a 3₁₀ -conformation, markedly increasing the distance between the DNA-binding domains. In sharp contrast to what was observed for other TetR/AcrR-like regulators, the increased interdomain distance might facilitate rather than abrogate interaction of the dimer with the operator. Such a 'reverse' induction mechanism could expand the regulatory repertoire of the TetR/AcrR family and may explain the dramatic impact of SCO3201 overexpression on the ability of S. coelicolor to generate antibiotics and sporulate.

The Inhibition of Antibiotic Production in Streptomyces coelicolor Over-Expressing the TetR Regulator SCO3201 IS Correlated With Changes in the Lipidome of the Strain

In condition of over-expression, SCO3201, a regulator of the TetR family was previously shown to strongly inhibit antibiotic production and morphological differentiation in Streptomyces coelicolor M145. In order to elucidate the molecular processes underlying this interesting, but poorly understood phenomenon, a comparative analysis of the lipidomes and transcriptomes of the strain over-expressing sco3201 and of the control strain containing the empty plasmid, was carried out. This study revealed that the strain over-expressing sco3201 had a higher triacylglycerol content and a lower phospholipids content than the control strain. This was correlated with up- and down- regulation of some genes involved in fatty acids biosynthesis (fab) and degradation (fad) respectively, indicating a direct or indirect control of the expression of these genes by SCO3201. In some instances, indirect control might involve TetR regulators, whose encoding genes present in close vicinity of genes involved in lipid metabolism, were shown to be differentially expressed in the two strains. Direct interaction of purified His6-SCO3201 with the promoter regions of four of such TetR regulators encoding genes (sco0116, sco0430, sco4167, and sco6792) was demonstrated. Furthermore, fasR (sco2386), encoding the activator of the main fatty acid biosynthetic operon, sco2386-sco2390, has been shown to be an illegitimate positive regulatory target of SCO3201. Altogether our data demonstrated that the sco3201 over-expressing strain accumulates TAG and suggested that degradation of fatty acids was reduced in this strain. This is expected to result into a reduced acetyl-CoA availability that would impair antibiotic biosynthesis either directly or indirectly.

Structural insights into operator recognition by BioQ in the Mycobacterium smegmatis biotin synthesis pathway

BACKGROUND

Biotin is an essential cofactor in living organisms. The TetR family transcriptional regulator (TFTR) BioQ is the main regulator of biotin synthesis in Mycobacterium smegmatis. BioQ represses the expression of its target genes by binding to a conserved palindromic DNA sequence (the BioQ operator). However, the mechanism by which BioQ recognizes this DNA element has not yet been fully elucidated.

METHODS/RESULTS

We solved the crystal structures of the BioQ homodimer in its apo-form and in complex with its specific operator at 2.26 Å and 2.69 Å resolution, respectively. BioQ inserts the N-terminal recognition helix of each protomer into the corresponding major grooves of its operator and stabilizes the formation of the complex via electrostatic interactions and hydrogen bonding to induce conformational changes in both the DNA and BioQ. The DNA interface of BioQ is rich in positively charged residues, which help BioQ stabilize DNA binding. We elucidated the structural basis of DNA recognition by BioQ for the first time and identified the amino acid residues responsible for DNA binding via further site-directed mutagenesis.

GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE

Our findings clearly elucidate the mechanism by which BioQ recognizes its operator in the biotin synthesis pathway and reveal the unique structural characteristics of BioQ that are distinct from other TFTR members.

In conditions of over-expression, WblI, a WhiB-like transcriptional regulator, has a positive impact on the weak antibiotic production of Streptomyces lividans TK24

Regulators of the WhiB-like (wbl) family are playing important role in the complex regulation of metabolic and morphological differentiation in Streptomyces. In this study, we investigated the role of wblI, a member of this family, in the regulation of secondary metabolite production in Streptomyces lividans. The over-expression of wblI was correlated with an enhanced biosynthesis of undecylprodigiosin and actinorhodin and with a reduction of the biosynthesis of yCPK and of the grey spore pigment encoded by the whiE locus. Five regulatory targets of WblI were identified using in vitro formaldehyde crosslinking and confirmed by EMSA and qRT-PCR. These included the promoter regions of wblI itself, two genes of the ACT cluster (actVA3 and the intergenic region between the divergently orientated genes actII-1 and actII-2) and that of wblA, another member of the Wbl family. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis indicated that the expression of actVA3 encoding a protein of unknown function as well as that of actII-1, a TetR regulator repressing the expression of actII-2, encoding the ACT transporter, were down regulated in the WblI over-expressing strain. Consistently the expression of the transporter actII-2 was up-regulated. The expression of WblA, that is known to have a negative impact on ACT biosynthesis, was strongly down regulated in the WblI over-expressing strain. These data are consistent with the positive impact that WblI over-expression has on ACT biosynthesis. The latter might result from direct activation of ACT biosynthesis and export and from repression of the expression of WblA, a likely indirect, repressor of ACT biosynthesis.

Recent advances in understanding Streptomyces

About 2,500 papers dated 2014–2016 were recovered by searching the PubMed database for Streptomyces, which are the richest known source of antibiotics. This review integrates around 100 of these papers in sections dealing with evolution, ecology, pathogenicity, growth and development, stress responses and secondary metabolism, gene expression, and technical advances. Genomic approaches have greatly accelerated progress. For example, it has been definitively shown that interspecies recombination of conserved genes has occurred during evolution, in addition to exchanges of some of the tens of thousands of non-conserved accessory genes. The closeness of the association of Streptomyces with plants, fungi, and insects has become clear and is reflected in the importance of regulators of cellulose and chitin utilisation in overall Streptomyces biology. Interestingly, endogenous cellulose-like glycans are also proving important in hyphal growth and in the clumping that affects industrial fermentations. Nucleotide secondary messengers, including cyclic di-GMP, have been shown to provide key input into developmental processes such as germination and reproductive growth, while late morphological changes during sporulation involve control by phosphorylation. The discovery that nitric oxide is produced endogenously puts a new face on speculative models in which regulatory Wbl proteins (peculiar to actinobacteria) respond to nitric oxide produced in stressful physiological transitions. Some dramatic insights have come from a new model system for Streptomyces developmental biology, Streptomyces venezuelae, including molecular evidence of very close interplay in each of two pairs of regulatory proteins. An extra dimension has been added to the many complexities of the regulation of secondary metabolism by findings of regulatory crosstalk within and between pathways, and even between species, mediated by end products. Among many outcomes from the application of chromosome immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) analysis and other methods based on “next-generation sequencing” has been the finding that 21% of Streptomyces mRNA species lack leader sequences and conventional ribosome binding sites. Further technical advances now emerging should lead to continued acceleration of knowledge, and more effective exploitation, of these astonishing and critically important organisms.