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Journal of Bacteriology, November 2006, p. 7807-7814, Vol. 188, No. 22
0021-9193/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01139-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Conservation and Variation between Rhodobacter capsulatus and Escherichia coli Tat Systems{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Ute Lindenstrauß and Thomas Brüser*

Institute of Microbiology, University of Halle-Wittenberg, Kurt-Mothes-Str. 3, D-06120 Halle, Germany

Received 28 July 2006/ Accepted 5 September 2006

The Tat system allows the translocation of folded and often cofactor-containing proteins across biological membranes. Here, we show by an interspecies transfer of a complete Tat translocon that Tat systems are largely, but not fully, interchangeable even between different classes of proteobacteria. The Tat apparatus from the {alpha}-proteobacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus was transferred to a Tat-deficient Escherichia coli strain, which is a {gamma}-proteobacterium. Similar to that of E. coli, the R. capsulatus Tat system consists of three components, rc-TatA, rc-TatB, and rc-TatC. A fourth gene (rc-tatF) is present in the rc-tatABCF operon which has no apparent relevance for translocation. The translational starts of rc-tatC and rc-tatF overlap in four nucleotides (ATGA) with the preceding tat genes, pointing to efficient translational coupling of rc-tatB, rc-tatC, and rc-tatF. We show by a variety of physiological and biochemical assays that the R. capsulatus Tat system functionally targets the E. coli Tat substrates TorA, AmiA, AmiC, and formate dehydrogenase. Even a Tat substrate from a third organism is accepted, demonstrating that usually Tat systems and Tat substrates from different proteobacteria are compatible with each other. Only one exceptional Tat substrate of E. coli, a membrane-anchored dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) reductase, was not targeted by the R. capsulatus Tat system, resulting in a DMSO respiration deficiency. Although the general features of Tat substrates and translocons are similar between species, the data indicate that details in the targeting pathways can vary considerably.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute of Microbiology, University of Halle-Wittenberg, Kurt-Mothes-Str. 3, D-06120 Halle, Germany. Phone: 49 345 5526360. Fax: 49 345 5527010. E-mail: t.brueser{at}mikrobiologie.uni-halle.de.

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 15 September 2006.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/.

Journal of Bacteriology, November 2006, p. 7807-7814, Vol. 188, No. 22
0021-9193/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01139-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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