An in vivo method for characterization of protein interactions within sulfur trafficking systems of E. coli

The Transcription Factor CsgD Contributes to Engineered Escherichia coli Resistance by Regulating Biofilm Formation and Stress Responses

The high cell density, immobilization and stability of biofilms are ideal characteristics for bacteria in resisting antibiotic therapy. CsgD is a transcription activating factor that regulates the synthesis of curly fimbriae and cellulose in Escherichia coli, thereby enhancing bacterial adhesion and promoting biofilm formation. To investigate the role of CsgD in biofilm formation and stress resistance in bacteria, the csgD deletion mutant ΔcsgD was successfully constructed from the engineered strain E. coli BL21(DE3) using the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing system. The results demonstrated that the biofilm of ΔcsgD decreased by 70.07% (p < 0.05). Additionally, the mobility and adhesion of ΔcsgD were inhibited due to the decrease in curly fimbriae and extracellular polymeric substances. Furthermore, ΔcsgD exhibited a significantly decreased resistance to acid, alkali and osmotic stress conditions (p < 0.05). RNA-Seq results revealed 491 differentially expressed genes between the parent strain and ΔcsgD, with enrichment primarily observed in metabolism-related processes as well as cell membrane structure and catalytic activity categories. Moreover, CsgD influenced the expression of biofilm and stress response genes pgaA, motB, fimA, fimC, iraP, ompA, osmC, sufE and elaB, indicating that the CsgD participated in the resistance of E. coli by regulating the expression of biofilm and stress response. In brief, the transcription factor CsgD plays a key role in the stress resistance of E. coli, and is a potential target for treating and controlling biofilm.

Synergic Effects of Temperature and Irradiance on the Physiology of the Marine Synechococcus Strain WH7803

Understanding how microorganisms adjust their metabolism to maintain their ability to cope with short-term environmental variations constitutes one of the major current challenges in microbial ecology. Here, the best physiologically characterized marine Synechococcus strain, WH7803, was exposed to modulated light/dark cycles or acclimated to continuous high-light (HL) or low-light (LL), then shifted to various stress conditions, including low (LT) or high temperature (HT), HL and ultraviolet (UV) radiations. Physiological responses were analyzed by measuring time courses of photosystem (PS) II quantum yield, PSII repair rate, pigment ratios and global changes in gene expression. Previously published membrane lipid composition were also used for correlation analyses. These data revealed that cells previously acclimated to HL are better prepared than LL-acclimated cells to sustain an additional light or UV stress, but not a LT stress. Indeed, LT seems to induce a synergic effect with the HL treatment, as previously observed with oxidative stress. While all tested shift conditions induced the downregulation of many photosynthetic genes, notably those encoding PSI, cytochrome b₆/f and phycobilisomes, UV stress proved to be more deleterious for PSII than the other treatments, and full recovery of damaged PSII from UV stress seemed to involve the neo-synthesis of a fairly large number of PSII subunits and not just the reassembly of pre-existing subunits after D1 replacement. In contrast, genes involved in glycogen degradation and carotenoid biosynthesis pathways were more particularly upregulated in response to LT. Altogether, these experiments allowed us to identify responses common to all stresses and those more specific to a given stress, thus highlighting genes potentially involved in niche acclimation of a key member of marine ecosystems. Our data also revealed important specific features of the stress responses compared to model freshwater cyanobacteria.

Molecular basis of function and the unusual antioxidant activity of a cyanobacterial cysteine desulfurase

Cysteine desulfurases, which supply sulfur for iron-sulfur cluster biogenesis, are broadly distributed in all phyla including cyanobacteria, the progenitors of plant chloroplasts. The SUF (sulfur utilization factor) system is responsible for Fe-S cluster biosynthesis under stress. The suf operon from cyanobacterium Anabaena PCC 7120 showed the presence of a cysteine desulfurase, sufS (alr2495), but not the accessory sulfur-accepting protein (SufE). However, an open reading frame (alr3513) encoding a SufE-like protein (termed AsaE, Anabaena sulfur acceptor E) was found at a location distinct from the suf operon. The purified SufS protein existed as a pyridoxal 5' phosphate (PLP)-containing dimer with a relatively low desulfurase activity. Interestingly, in the presence of the AsaE protein, the catalytic efficiency of this reaction increased 10-fold. In particular, for sulfur mobilization, the AsaE protein partnered only SufS and not other cysteine desulfurases from Anabaena. The SufS protein was found to physically interact with the AsaE protein, demonstrating that AsaE was indeed the missing partner of Anabaena SufS. The conserved cysteine of the SufS or the AsaE protein was essential for activity but not for their physical association. Curiously, overexpression of the SufS protein in Anabaena caused reduced formation of reactive oxygen species on exposure to hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), resulting in superior oxidative stress tolerance to the oxidizing agent when compared with the wild-type strain. Overall, the results highlight the functional interaction between the two proteins that mediate sulfur mobilization, in the cyanobacterial SUF pathway, and further reveal that overexpression of SufS can protect cyanobacteria from oxidative stress.

The Escherichia coli BolA Protein IbaG Forms a Histidine-Ligated [2Fe-2S]-Bridged Complex with Grx4

Two ubiquitous protein families have emerged as key players in iron metabolism, the CGFS-type monothiol glutaredoxins (Grxs) and the BolA proteins. Monothiol Grxs and BolA proteins form heterocomplexes that have been implicated in Fe-S cluster assembly and trafficking. The Escherichia coli genome encodes members of both of these proteins families, namely, the monothiol glutaredoxin Grx4 and two BolA family proteins, BolA and IbaG. Previous work has demonstrated that E. coli Grx4 and BolA interact as both apo and [2Fe-2S]-bridged heterodimers that are spectroscopically distinct from [2Fe-2S]-bridged Grx4 homodimers. However, the physical and functional interactions between Grx4 and IbaG are uncharacterized. Here we show that co-expression of Grx4 with IbaG yields a [2Fe-2S]-bridged Grx4-IbaG heterodimer. In vitro interaction studies indicate that IbaG binds the [2Fe-2S] Grx4 homodimer to form apo Grx4-IbaG heterodimer as well as the [2Fe-2S] Grx4-IbaG heterodimer, altering the cluster stability and coordination environment. Additionally, spectroscopic and mutagenesis studies provide evidence that IbaG ligates the Fe-S cluster via the conserved histidine that is present in all BolA proteins and by a second conserved histidine that is present in the H/C loop of two of the four classes of BolA proteins. These results suggest that IbaG may function in Fe-S cluster assembly and trafficking in E. coli as demonstrated for other BolA homologues that interact with monothiol Grxs.

SufE D74R Substitution Alters Active Site Loop Dynamics To Further Enhance SufE Interaction with the SufS Cysteine Desulfurase

Many essential metalloproteins require iron-sulfur (Fe-S) cluster cofactors for their function. In vivo persulfide formation from l-cysteine is a key step in the biogenesis of Fe-S clusters in most organisms. In Escherichia coli, the SufS cysteine desulfurase mobilizes persulfide from l-cysteine via a PLP-dependent ping-pong reaction. SufS requires the SufE partner protein to transfer the persulfide to the SufB Fe-S cluster scaffold. Without SufE, the SufS enzyme fails to efficiently turn over and remains locked in the persulfide-bound state. Coordinated protein-protein interactions mediate sulfur transfer from SufS to SufE. Multiple studies have suggested that SufE must undergo a conformational change to extend its active site Cys loop during sulfur transfer from SufS. To test this putative model, we mutated SufE Asp74 to Arg (D74R) to increase the dynamics of the SufE Cys51 loop. Amide hydrogen/deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) analysis of SufE D74R revealed an increase in solvent accessibility and dynamics in the loop containing the active site Cys51 used to accept persulfide from SufS. Our results indicate that the mutant protein has a stronger binding affinity for SufS than that of wild-type SufE. In addition, SufE D74R can still enhance SufS desulfurase activity and did not show saturation at higher SufE D74R concentrations, unlike wild-type SufE. These results show that dynamic changes may shift SufE to a sulfur-acceptor state that interacts more strongly with SufS.

Inferring the relation between transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation from expression compendia

Background

Publicly available expression compendia that measure both mRNAs and sRNAs provide a promising resource to simultaneously infer the transcriptional and the posttranscriptional network. To maximally exploit the information contained in such compendia, we propose an analysis flow that combines publicly available expression compendia and sequence-based predictions to infer novel sRNA-target interactions and to reconstruct the relation between the sRNA and the transcriptional network.

Results

We relied on module inference to construct modules of coexpressed genes (sRNAs). TFs and sRNAs were assigned to these modules using the state-of-the-art inference techniques LeMoNe and Context Likelihood of Relatedness (CLR). Combining these expressions with sequence-based sRNA-target interactions allowed us to predict 30 novel sRNA-target interactions comprising 14 sRNAs. Our results highlight the role of the posttranscriptional network in finetuning the transcriptional regulation, e.g. by intra-operonic regulation.

Conclusion

In this work we show how strategies that combine expression information with sequence-based predictions can help unveiling the intricate interaction between the transcriptional and the posttranscriptional network in prokaryotic model systems.

Monothiol glutaredoxin-BolA interactions: redox control of Arabidopsis thaliana BolA2 and SufE1

A functional relationship between monothiol glutaredoxins and BolAs has been unraveled by genomic analyses and in several high-throughput studies. Phylogenetic analyses coupled to transient expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusions indicated that, in addition to the sulfurtransferase SufE1, which contains a C-terminal BolA domain, three BolA isoforms exist in Arabidopsis thaliana, BolA1 being plastidial, BolA2 nucleo-cytoplasmic, and BolA4 dual-targeted to mitochondria and plastids. Binary yeast two-hybrid experiments demonstrated that all BolAs and SufE1, via its BolA domain, can interact with all monothiol glutaredoxins. Most interactions between protein couples of the same subcellular compartment have been confirmed by bimolecular fluorescence complementation. In vitro experiments indicated that monothiol glutaredoxins could regulate the redox state of BolA2 and SufE1, both proteins possessing a single conserved reactive cysteine. Indeed, a glutathionylated form of SufE1 lost its capacity to activate the cysteine desulfurase, Nfs2, but it is reactivated by plastidial glutaredoxins. Besides, a monomeric glutathionylated form and a dimeric disulfide-bridged form of BolA2 can be preferentially reduced by the nucleo-cytoplasmic GrxS17. These results indicate that the glutaredoxin-BolA interaction occurs in several subcellular compartments and suggest that a redox regulation mechanism, disconnected from their capacity to form iron-sulfur cluster-bridged heterodimers, may be physiologically relevant for BolA2 and SufE1.

The iron-sulfur cluster assembly machineries in plants: current knowledge and open questions

Many metabolic pathways and cellular processes occurring in most sub-cellular compartments depend on the functioning of iron-sulfur (Fe-S) proteins, whose cofactors are assembled through dedicated protein machineries. Recent advances have been made in the knowledge of the functions of individual components through a combination of genetic, biochemical and structural approaches, primarily in prokaryotes and non-plant eukaryotes. Whereas most of the components of these machineries are conserved between kingdoms, their complexity is likely increased in plants owing to the presence of additional assembly proteins and to the existence of expanded families for several assembly proteins. This review focuses on the new actors discovered in the past few years, such as glutaredoxin, BOLA and NEET proteins as well as MIP18, MMS19, TAH18, DRE2 for the cytosolic machinery, which are integrated into a model for the plant Fe-S cluster biogenesis systems. It also discusses a few issues currently subjected to an intense debate such as the role of the mitochondrial frataxin and of glutaredoxins, the functional separation between scaffold, carrier and iron-delivery proteins and the crosstalk existing between different organelles.

The E. coli monothiol glutaredoxin GrxD forms homodimeric and heterodimeric FeS cluster containing complexes

Monothiol glutaredoxins (mono-Grx) represent a highly evolutionarily conserved class of proteins present in organisms ranging from prokaryotes to humans. Mono-Grxs have been implicated in iron sulfur (FeS) cluster biosynthesis as potential scaffold proteins and in iron homeostasis via an FeS-containing complex with Fra2p (homologue of E. coli BolA) in yeast and are linked to signal transduction in mammalian systems. However, the function of the mono-Grx in prokaryotes and the nature of an interaction with BolA-like proteins have not been established. Recent genome-wide screens for E. coli genetic interactions reported the synthetic lethality (combination of mutations leading to cell death; mutation of only one of these genes does not) of a grxD mutation when combined with strains defective in FeS cluster biosynthesis (isc operon) functions [Butland, G., et al. (2008) Nature Methods 5, 789-795]. These data connected the only E. coli mono-Grx, GrxD to a potential role in FeS cluster biosynthesis. We investigated GrxD to uncover the molecular basis of this synthetic lethality and observed that GrxD can form FeS-bound homodimeric and BolA containing heterodimeric complexes. These complexes display substantially different spectroscopic and functional properties, including the ability to act as scaffold proteins for intact FeS cluster transfer to the model [2Fe-2S] acceptor protein E. coli apo-ferredoxin (Fdx), with the homodimer being significantly more efficient. In this work, we functionally dissect the potential cellular roles of GrxD as a component of both homodimeric and heterodimeric complexes to ultimately uncover if either of these complexes performs functions linked to FeS cluster biosynthesis.