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Journal of Bacteriology, August 2002, p. 4620-4625, Vol. 184, No. 16
0021-9193/02/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.184.16.4620-4625.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Unité de Microbiologie et Génétique, UMR5122 (CNRS-INSA-Université Lyon1), F-69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France
Received 7 March 2002/ Accepted 11 May 2002
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-helical structure and a C-terminal domain (TolAIII) which has been crystallized (25). Each of the three domains is separated by a stretch of glycine residues which confers some flexibility to the protein (23). The N-terminal transmembrane domain of colicins and the g3p protein of the filamentous phage interact with TolAIII during translocation or infection (3, 25). TolR also has an N-terminal anchoring domain, a central domain, and a C-terminal domain which has been proposed to form an amphipathic helix interacting with the cytoplasmic membrane (22). TolQ, TolR, and TolA form a complex in the cytoplasmic membrane (12). Biochemical and genetic studies have shown that these interactions involve the transmembrane domains of the three proteins along with the C-terminal amphipathic helix of TolR (12, 13, 22).
TolB is a periplasmic protein and has been entirely crystallized (1, 6). It contains an N-terminal
+ß domain based on a five-stranded mixed ß-sheet and a C-terminal six-bladed ß-propeller domain. Pal is an outer membrane peptidoglycan-associated lipoprotein. It is anchored to the outer membrane by its N-terminal lipid moiety and strongly interacts with the peptidoglycan layer through its carboxy-terminal region, which contains a particular sequence motif (17, 21). The same region of Pal interacts with the ß-propeller domain of TolB (29). The interactions of Pal with TolB and the peptidoglycan appear to be mutually exclusive, since a TolB-Pal complex is not associated with the peptidoglycan (2).
Cell fractionation experiments suggest that the Tol-Pal proteins are preferentially associated with contact regions between the inner and outer membrane (15). Recently, energy-dependent conformational changes in TolA have been characterized (14). They depend on the transmembrane domains of TolA, TolQ, and TolR. Indeed, the transmembrane fragment of TolR and the third transmembrane fragment of TolQ are involved in the pmf-dependent activation of TolA (9). The TolQRA and TolB-Pal complexes are connected by the interaction between Pal and TolA, which requires the proton motive force, TolQ, and TolR (8). In addition, TolAIII has recently been reported to interact with TolB (24). All of these results are consistent with the fact that TolA activation, which requires a functional Tol cytoplasmic membrane complex, drives a signal to Pal via a change of conformation of TolAIII, generating a transient interaction between the TolQRA cytoplasmic and TolB-Pal outer membrane complexes. Interactions between Pal, TolB, and other peptidoglycan-associated proteins have also been demonstrated (7, 10). Three main outer membrane proteins interacting with the peptidoglycan network, namely Lpp, OmpA, and Pal, interact together with TolB and might constitute a structural network to link the peptidoglycan and the outer membrane.
In this study we performed an extensive mutagenesis of the C-terminal domain of TolA (TolAIII) to characterize more accurately the residues involved in TolA function. A suppressor analysis of the tolA mutants was then carried out to identify residues of TolB or Pal that were able to interact with TolA.
Mutational analysis of TolAIII.
The TolAIII region is defined by the last 107 residues of TolA, which are separated from the central domain by a stretch of 3 glycine residues (23). Strains and plasmids are described in Table 1. We used a mutagenic PCR technique to isolate mutants in the TolAIII region (5). A 473-bp region including NotI-BamHI sites containing the last 131 residues of tolA was mutagenized by degenerated PCR. The resulting plasmids were used to transform JC9776 [
(orf1 tolQRA)::cm]. All of the tolA mutations were constructed in pT71QRA derivatives and then subcloned into the low-copy-number plasmid pLG339 (30) by using an EcoRI-BamHI fragment containing the entire orf1 tolQRA region.
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TABLE 1. Bacterial strains and plasmids
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TABLE 2. Phenotypes of tolA mutants and suppression by the tolBD120N mutation
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2, ß6, and ß8 domains, which are also involved in the interaction of TolA and g3p. The two substitutions involving residues 352 and 353 were localized in a loop between the
2 and
310 helices, while the two mutations giving only tolerance to colicin A were clearly distinct and localized in a loop between the ß6 and ß7 domains. All of the mutations leading to a defect in outer membrane stability were localized in a region centered on the
2 helix. At first glance, the result of the mutagenesis allowed us to identify two domains in TolAIII, one involved only in tolerance to colicin A and another one whose alteration gave a more pleiotropic phenotype. This latter domain overlaps the region of interaction of TolA with g3p. The three residues whose alteration led to an intermediate sensitivity to colicin A were localized within the
2 helix.
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FIG. 1. Positions, on the three-dimensional structures of TolAIII and TolB, of the different amino acid substitutions obtained in this study. Shown are mutations leading to tolerance to colicin A ( ), a defect in outer membrane integrity ( ), and a defect in outer membrane integrity and tolerance to colicin A suppressed () or not suppressed ( ) by the TolB D120N substitution.
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FIG. 2. Stability and expression of proteins containing substitutions in TolA. JC9776 transformed with pLG339 derivatives containing the orf1 tolQRA region was used for this study. For the controls, JC9776 was transformed with pLG339 ( 1QRA), pLG1QRA (WT), and pLG1QR A (tolA). Immunoblots of intact cells were probed with a polyclonal antibody, diluted 1/2,000, and raised against the periplasmic domain of TolA (residues 42 to 421). The position of TolA is indicated.
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Isolation and characterization of tolB suppressor mutations of tolA. Despite the fact that some TolA proteins were unstable, all of the tolA mutants were used for subsequent analysis. Indeed, we made the hypothesis that the instability of TolA might be due to an impaired interaction with another protein and that TolA stability could be restored by a suppressor mutation affecting such a protein. We searched for suppressor mutants in the tolB pal ybgF genes. pT7BP2 was mutagenized with nitrosoguanidine (0.4 mg/ml) as described previously (26).
The resulting plasmids were first used to transform JC8056 and JC7752 (
tolB pal), and clones unable to grow in the presence of sodium cholate were identified to calibrate the mutagenesis. In our experimental conditions, we could identify between 3 and 8% of mutants no matter what strain was transformed, indicating that the plasmid-borne mutations were dominant over the wild-type chromosome. A search for suppressor mutations of tolA was carried out with strain JC9776, which does not express the tolQRA genes and has a lower content of TolB, Pal, and YbgF due to the absence of the P1 promoter upstream orf1 and to the polarity of the chloramphenicol cassette, which has been used to replace the orf1 tolQRA region in the deletion. The strain was simultaneously transformed with pLG1QRA and pT7BP2 derivatives. When plasmids containing the corresponding wild-type alleles were used, strain JC9776 was fully complemented. Transformants were selected in the presence of ampicillin and kanamycin and then replicated on the same plates containing sodium cholate. As a consequence of our selection procedure, the two mutants conferring only tolerance to colicin A were not included in our screening. Sixty clones were isolated and further characterized. Of those, seven were able to restore a wild-type phenotype. Plasmids were extracted from the strains, used to transform JC8056, and selected independently for resistance to ampicillin or kanamycin. The tolA and tolB pal ybgF regions of PLG1QRA and pT7BP2, respectively, were sequenced to identify both the suppressor and the tolA mutations. All of the pT7BP2 plasmids carried the same mutation leading to a D120N transition in TolB. This mutation was able to restore a wild-type phenotype to the tolA F352I mutant (Table 2). pT7BP2 carrying the tolB mutation was used to transform strain JC7752. The mutation did not confer any tolB phenotype. This absence of obvious phenotype in suppressor mutants has already been observed in the case of tolR mutants able to restore a wild-type phenotype to tolQ mutants (22). Residue 120 is located in the N-terminal region of TolB. Therefore, the TolB C-terminal region is involved in interactions with Pal and colicins, while the TolB N-terminal region seems to interact with the C-terminal domain of TolA.
Site-directed mutagenesis of tolA and tolB. No evidence for an interaction between TolA and TolB could be obtained after cross-linking with formaldehyde (data not shown). This could be explained by the fact that no formaldehyde residues are close enough for a cross-link to form. As our suppressor analysis revealed residues of TolA and TolB susceptible to interacting, we tried to construct monocysteine derivatives of tolA and tolB in these regions to perform cysteine cross-linking. Cysteine residues were introduced by site-directed mutagenesis by using a Quick-Change site-directed mutagenesis kit (Stratagene, La Jolla, Calif.), yielding the variants S350C, F352C, S357C, and Y358C of TolA and D120C, G122C, and G123C of TolB. In addition, a Y353I substitution was also generated in TolA. Only the F352C and Y353I substitutions in TolA led to a total tol phenotype, the other substitutions resulting in a wild-type phenotype (data not shown). These two tolA mutants were tested for their ability to be suppressed by the tolB D120N mutation. Indeed, the tolB suppressor mutation was able to restore a wild-type phenotype to the three tolA mutants altered at residues 352 and 353 (Table 2).
JC9776 transformed with plasmids containing all the combinations of cysteine residues in TolA and TolB was used to characterize potential TolA-TolB complexes by Western blot analysis. For cysteine cross-linking, we used experimental conditions described previously (4). No high-molecular-mass complex could be detected in our experimental conditions, except in the presence of the TolB G123C substitution. In this case, a 90-kDa complex could be detected, but it did not involve TolA or OmpA (data not shown). This complex could reflect TolB dimerization or an interaction between TolB and an unknown protein of similar molecular mass. The stability and expression of the TolA proteins substituted at positions 352 and 353 was not modified in the presence of the tolB D120N mutation (data not shown).
The set of results presented above allowed us to characterize mutants that affected (i) TolA stability, (ii) the interaction between TolA and TolB, and (iii) sensitivity to colicin A. A region potentially important for colicin A activity was identified in a loop between the ß6 and ß7 sheets, where two mutations giving only tolerance to colicin A were found. The residues involved in or important for the interaction between TolA and TolB were localized in a loop between the
2 and
310 domains. Our results also suggest that the residues of TolAIII involved in the interactions with g3p and colicin A are different. This may explain the difference of structural modification observed when TolAIII interacts with these two proteins (11).
An analysis including 25 TolB proteins from proteobacteria of all subdivisions revealed that an aspartic acid residue was present at this position in 21 cases and was replaced only by asparagine in the 4 other bacteria (Fig. 3). Interestingly, the suppressor mutation we have isolated corresponds to a D120N substitution. This may explain why this substitution does not lead to a tolB phenotype but more probably to a modification allowing the asparagine residue to interact with the altered isoleucine or cysteine residues of TolA in a manner similar to that of the interaction between aspartic acid and tyrosine or phenylalanine present in the wild-type TolB and TolA, respectively.
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FIG. 3. Sequence alignment of the TolB N-terminal region surrounding residue D120 of E. coli. The sequences were extracted from SwissProt or The Institute for Genomic Research and correspond, from top to bottom, to those of Rickettsia prowazekii, Rickettsia conorii, Brucella melitensis, Brucella abortus, Brucella suis, Sinorhizobium meliloti, Mesorhizobium loti, Caulobacter crescentus, Wolbachia sp., Ralstonia solanacearum, Burkholderia mallei, Erwinia chrysanthemi, Yersinia pestis, Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, Haemophilus influenzae, Pasteurella multocida, Vibrio cholerae, Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas syringae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Xylella fastidiosa, Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, Geobacter sulfurreducens, and Helicobacter pylori. Sequences were aligned with Clustal W. Strong similarity is indicated by a colon. The position of the D120 residue of E. coli is indicated.
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Conclusion. As in the case of the Ton system (18), the Tol system appears to function via an energy-dependent conformational change of TolA in the periplasm, leading to an interaction between inner and outer membrane proteins on the periplasmic side. This kind of signalization may contribute to the role of the Tol system in maintaining outer membrane stability. The TolAIII domain appears to be crucial in this process by interacting with TolB and Pal. As many alterations in TolAIII lead to a highly unstable protein, the structural constraints of the TolAIII domain are probably fundamental for its role.
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