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Guo L, Wang YH, Cui R, Huang Z, Hong Y, Qian JW, Ni B, Xu AM, Jiang CY, Zhulin IB, Liu SJ, Li DF. Attractant and repellent induce opposing changes in the four-helix bundle ligand-binding domain of a bacterial chemoreceptor. PLoS Biol 2023; 21:e3002429. [PMID: 38079456 PMCID: PMC10735184 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002429] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2023] [Revised: 12/21/2023] [Accepted: 11/14/2023] [Indexed: 12/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Motile bacteria navigate toward favorable conditions and away from unfavorable environments using chemotaxis. Mechanisms of sensing attractants are well understood; however, molecular aspects of how bacteria sense repellents have not been established. Here, we identified malate as a repellent recognized by the MCP2201 chemoreceptor in a bacterium Comamonas testosteroni and showed that it binds to the same site as an attractant citrate. Binding determinants for a repellent and an attractant had only minor differences, and a single amino acid substitution in the binding site inverted the response to malate from a repellent to an attractant. We found that malate and citrate affect the oligomerization state of the ligand-binding domain in opposing way. We also observed opposing effects of repellent and attractant binding on the orientation of an alpha helix connecting the sensory domain to the transmembrane helix. We propose a model to illustrate how positive and negative signals might be generated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lu Guo
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yun-Hao Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
| | - Rui Cui
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Zhou Huang
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yuan Hong
- National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, CAS Center for Excellence in Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Jia-Wei Qian
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Bin Ni
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - An-Ming Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, China
| | - Cheng-Ying Jiang
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Igor B. Zhulin
- Department of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America
| | - Shuang-Jiang Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - De-Feng Li
- State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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