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Journal of Bacteriology, June 2002, p. 3396-3400, Vol. 184, No. 12
0021-9193/02/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.184.12.3396-3400.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Rebecca W. Corbin,2,
Donald F. Hunt,2 and Sydney Kustu1*
Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720,1 Department of Chemistry, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 229012
Received 11 February 2002/ Accepted 20 March 2002
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Hyperthermophilic Amt proteins are active at mesophilic temperatures. Previous studies of Amt proteins in enteric bacteria and their homologues in Saccharomyces cerevisiae provided evidence that they facilitate diffusion of the uncharged species NH3 across the cytoplasmic membrane (10-12). We amplified the amtB gene of the hyperthermophilic bacterium Aquifex aeolicus (GenBank accession number AAC06478; 423 residues) and the two genes (amt and amtB) of the hyperthermophilic archaeon Methanococcus jannaschii (GenBank accession numbers AAB98038 [MJ0058; 391 residues] and AAB99352 [MJ1343; 420 residues], respectively) by PCR and cloned them under the control of the tac promoter in plasmid pJES1242, which also codes for a C-terminal six-His tag. (pJES1242 was derived from pJES1130, which carries Escherichia coli amtB under the control of the tac promoter [10], and pJES1139, a derivative of pET21a [Novagen, Inc.], which codes for an E. coli AmtB-His fusion protein under the control of the T7 promoter. Cloning into pJES1242 entailed removal of the ribosome binding site of E. coli amtB.) All three genes from hyperthermophiles (amtB from A. aeolicus and amt and amtB from M. jannaschii, which we call amt1 and amt2 in conformity with nomenclature used for other organisms) complemented an E. coli amtB mutant for growth at 0.5 mM ammonium at pH 5 (25 nM NH3) at 37°C (Table 1), although the amt2 gene of M. jannaschii worked least well. (The E. coli amtB mutant has no growth defect at 5 mM ammonium at pH 5 or 0.5 mM ammonium at pH 7 [10].) Thus, the hyperthermophilic proteins not only are active but also are successfully inserted into the cytoplasmic membrane and folded at mesophilic temperatures. They are apparently tolerant of the lipid composition of enteric membranes.
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TABLE 1. The amt genes of A. aeolicus and M. jannaschii complement an E. coli amtB mutant for growth at low ammonium and [14C]methylammonium uptake
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A. aeolicus AmtB can be partially purified. Hyperthermophilic amt genes were placed under the control of the T7 promoter and ribosome binding site in pET21a, which also codes for a C-terminal six-His tag. When induced cell extracts were run on sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gels and immunoblotted, each hyperthermophilic protein gave at least two His-tagged bands, as was the case for the E. coli protein (Fig. 1A). The relative amounts of upper and lower bands varied with many aspects of handling, including freezing and dilution. Further study of the Aquifex protein provided preliminary evidence that the upper band was an oligomer (perhaps a dimer), whereas the lower band was a monomer. (Similar behavior was seen for the AqpZ protein of E. coli [1], a member of the aquaporin family.) First, we never saw bands of higher mobility than the lower band and the lower band was seen whether or not protease inhibitors were present during preparation of extracts. Second, doubly N- and C-terminally tagged A. aeolicus AmtB protein yielded lower and upper bands of the same mobility as C-terminally His-tagged protein (not shown). Third, some missense mutant forms of the protein (see below and Table 2) yielded far more lower than upper band, as if the functional oligomer was less stable (Fig. 1B). Finally, some N-terminal-deletion-containing proteins and C-terminally truncated proteins (see below) yielded only single bands of higher mobility than the lower band (Fig. 1C and data not shown). Again, these may have oligomerized less stably than the full-length protein. We have not ruled out other explanations for the two bands of A. aeolicus AmtB, including the possibility that lower bands are proteolytic cleavage fragments and upper bands are intact monomers.
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FIG. 1. Immunoblots of C-terminally His-tagged Amt proteins in cell extracts. All proteins were tagged with six histidine residues. Cell extracts were subjected to SDS-10% (A and B) or 12% (C) polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, transferred to nitrocellulose membranes, and blotted with a specific anti-His antibody (INDIA HisProbe-HRP; Pierce). Plasmids for panels A and C were derived from vector pET21a (Novagen). The host strain was BL21(DE3)(pLysE). Plasmids for the experiment in panel B were derived from pJES1335. The host strain was NCM2019 (10). Expression of Amt proteins was induced as described in the text for purification of A. aeolicus AmtB. (A) Lane 1, E. coli AmtB (pJES1139); lane 2, A. aeolicus AmtB (pJES1331); lane 3, M. jannaschii Amt1 (pJES1345); lane 4, M. jannaschii Amt2 (pJES1346). (B) Lane 1, A. aeolicus AmtBT253I, T259M, S404F (pJES1378); lane 2, A. aeolicus AmtB (pJES1335). (C) Lane 1, A. aeolicus AmtB 2-51 (pJES1432); lane 2, AmtB 2-87 (pJES1433): lane 3, AmtB 2-143 (pJES1434); lane 4, AmtB 2-170 (pJES1435); lane 5, AmtB 2-209 (pJES1436); lane 6, AmtB 398-423 (pJES1437); lane 7, molecular weight standards; lane 8, A. aeolicus AmtB (pJES1331).
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TABLE 2. Effects of mutations on the ability of the A. aeolicus amtB gene to complement for growth and [14C]methylammonium uptake and on the toxicity of its producta
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FIG. 2. Metal affinity purification of A. aeolicus AmtB-His6 and mutant form W32 stop (see the text). Samples taken during purification (see the text) were subjected to SDS-10% polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. (A and C) Coomassie blue-stained gels; (B and D) Western blots with anti-His antibody (see the legend to Fig. 1). (A and B) Lane 1, molecular weight standards; lane 2, crude extract after heat treatment; lane 3, flowthrough of Ni-NTA affinity column; lane 4, first wash (in breakage buffer modified to contain 0.1 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride and 0.1% octylglucoside); lane 5, second wash (in breakage buffer adjusted to pH 6, modified as described above, and containing 10% glycerol); lane 6, eluate with 50 mM imidazole added to the second wash buffer; lane 7, eluate with 200 mM imidazole; lane 8, eluate with 500 mM imidazole; lane 9, eluate with 1,000 mM imidazole; lane 10, molecular weight standards. (C and D) Lane 1, crude extract after heat treatment; lane 2, flowthrough of Ni-NTA affinity column; lane 3, first wash (pH 8.0); lane 4, second wash (pH 6.0); lanes 5 to 8, eluates with 50, 200, 500, and 1,000 mM imidazole, respectively; lane 9, wash with 0.2 M acetic acid; lane 10, molecular weight standards.
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FIG. 3. Heat inactivation of the Cbl-His6 carrier used for purification of A. aeolicus AmtB-His6. Samples were treated as described for Fig. 2, and the resulting SDS gel was stained with Coomassie blue. Lane 1, eluate from Ni-NTA affinity column with 200 mM imidazole (sample in lane 7 of Fig. 2A and B); lane 2, supernatant of sample in lane 1 after heat treatment at 70°C for 20 min; lane 3, pellet.
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Ile), we confirmed that an additional mutation in the vector contributed to poor growth at low ammonium in the initial screen. Though we have characterized only small numbers of mutant forms, these early results hint that it may be difficult to obtain inactive Amt proteins with single amino acid substitutions. Toxicity of mutant A. aeolicus AmtB proteins was assessed by their effect on growth at pH 7 with 1 mM ammonium as the nitrogen source (Table 2), a condition under which the function of Amt as an NH3 channel is not required. A high concentration of IPTG (100 µM) was used for induction. Transformants were compared to NCM3404 (amtB/pJES1335), which produces the toxic intact A. aeolicus AmtB protein and therefore grows poorly, and to NCM2019 (amtB), which grows well. The four plasmids carrying missense mutations in amtB yielded proteins that remained toxic at high concentrations, whereas the four plasmids coding for the shortest nonsense fragments yielded nontoxic or weakly toxic proteins (Table 2). The remaining four plasmids carrying nonsense mutations yielded proteins that remained toxic despite their loss of activity. Thus, toxicity of Amt is apparently not a function of its activity as an NH3 channel.
Surprisingly, upon SDS electrophoresis and immunoblotting for the His tag, one of the C-terminally His-tagged nonsense variants, the W32
stop variant, yielded bands essentially the same as those from intact AmtB (Fig. 2D). As expected, none of the other nonsense variants was detected in this way. The W32
stop variant, which was not detected with an N-terminal His tag (see below), appears to have reinitiated at methionine 33. The PHDhtm topology program (Table 2) predicts that Met33 lies at or near the beginning of the first transmembrane spanning segment of the AmtB protein. Although the
1-32 mutant protein was not toxic, it was nevertheless found in the membrane fraction (160,000 x g pellet) rather than the soluble fraction or inclusion bodies (inferred to be in the 8,000 x g pellet). It could be purified by exactly the same procedure used for the full-length protein (Fig. 2C and D). Attempts to select suppressor mutations that restore the activity of
1-32 are under way.
To detect the other nonsense variants, all genes carrying nonsense mutations were subcloned into pET28a, which codes for both N- and C-terminal six-His tags. Properties of the resulting proteins are summarized in Table 2.
Finally, to determine whether N-terminally truncated Aquifex proteins that lacked more than the first 32 residues were active and/or nontoxic, we used PCR to delete residues from 2 through 51, 87, 143, 170, or 209. The resulting peptides are predicted by the PHDhtm topology program to lack transmembrane spanning segments 1, 1 and 2, 1 to 3, 1 to 4, and 1 to 5, respectively. Like the peptide beginning with Met33, all were inactive, but, unlike it, all were toxic. All peptides were readily detected by immunoblotting of crude cell extracts (Fig. 1C; also, see above). In addition to a lower band with higher mobility than that from intact AmtB, which is likely to be a monomer, the shortest two peptides yielded many additional bands of lower mobility, which may be aggregates. Deletion of the C terminus of AmtB from residue 398 to the end greatly decreased the activity of the protein and left it toxic. The peptide was not readily detected (Fig. 1C). At present there is no easy way to summarize the basis for toxicity of A. aeolicus AmtB.
Implications. Upon first consideration, it seems odd that hyperthermophiles would require protein channels for NH3 gas. Perhaps the lipid compositions of their cytoplasmic membranes, which allow them to withstand high temperatures (reviewed in reference 9), also restrict passive movement of NH3. We have noted previously that the membranes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae may be more restrictive to passive diffusion of NH3 than their counterparts in enteric bacteria (12).
Despite the fact that the Amt proteins of A. aeolicus, M. jannaschii, and E. coli are each predicted to have different numbers of membrane-spanning segments (i.e., 10 to 12) (3, 7, 13, 15) and have very different C termini, their substrate specificities appear to be the same. There is no evidence that the Amt proteins of the autotrophs, which were identified by homology to those of other organisms, function in diffusion of carbon dioxide or methane rather than NH3. We have speculated that the Rhesus proteins, the only known homologues of Amt, are channels for CO2 (12). These proteins are notably absent in both the archaea and the bacteria (4, 5), which may be too small to need them.
This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grant GM37537 to D.F.H. and by National Science Foundation grant MCB 9874443 to S.K.
Present address: University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0348. ![]()
Present address: Ashland University, Department of Chemistry, Ashland, OH 44805. ![]()
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