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Journal of Bacteriology, July 2003, p. 3690-3695, Vol. 185, No. 13
0021-9193/03/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.185.13.3690-3695.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Department of Radiation Genetics, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Konoe, Yoshida, Sakyo, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
Received 11 March 2003/ Accepted 9 April 2003
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A mukB null mutant is hypersensitive to novobiocin, an inhibitor (20). Deletion mutants of each of the mukB, mukF, and mukE genes and a deletion mutant lacking all three muk genes are hypersensitive to novobiocin (14). Weitao et al. (20) showed that a seqA null mutation suppressed temperature-sensitive growth, anucleate-cell production, and novobiocin hypersensitivity in the mukB null mutation. Inconsistently, Onogi et al. (14) reported that a seqA or dam null mutation partially suppressed temperature-sensitive growth but failed to suppress the anucleate-cell production and novobiocin hypersensitivity of these muk null mutants.
It is not yet clear what the mechanism of the novobiocin hypersensitivity of these muk mutants is. What is the target protein that is hypersensitive to novobiocin in these muk null mutants? There are two possibilities. First, DNA gyrase could be the target of a low concentration of novobiocin in muk null mutants. Second, an unknown protein could be the target, which should be more sensitive to novobiocin than DNA gyrase and essential for growth only in the defective muk background but nonessential in the wild-type muk genetic background. In this work, to investigate the identity of the target protein, we isolated novobiocin-resistant suppressor mutants from the mukB null mutant strain and characterized them. We found that the beta subunit of DNA gyrase is the target protein of novobiocin in a mukB null mutant. We discuss the mechanism of novobiocin hypersensitivity of mukB null mutant cells.
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mukB::kan) are derivatives of E. coli strain W3100, as described previously (14, 22). Bacterial cells were grown in Luria-Bertani (LB) medium at 22°C, which is the permissive temperature for AZ5372. QT186 (strain JC12334 [15]) has the tna-300::Tn10 marker, which is linked with the gyrB gene. Isolation of mutants that suppress novobiocin hypersensitivity of a mukB null mutation. Ten independent single colonies of strain AZ5372 grown on LB agar plates at 22°C were inoculated into LB liquid medium, and the cultures were grown to saturation at 22°C. Fifty microliters of each culture was spread onto an LB agar plate containing 100 or 1,000 µg of novobiocin/ml and incubated at 22°C for 5 days. Confluent growth of cells occurred on the plates containing 100 µg of novobiocin/ml, due to the large number of cells spread on the plates. However, only 10 to 30 novobiocin-resistant colonies appeared on each plate containing 1,000 µg of novobiocin/ml. Single colonies from each plate were picked and purified on LB agar plates at 22°C and named MQ40, MQ41, and MQ43 to MQ50. These purified clones were shown to have the same tryptophan requirement and kanamycin resistance at 22°C as the parental strain, AZ5372.
Sensitivity to DNA gyrase inhibitors. The colony-forming abilities of various strains were analyzed on LB agar plates containing various concentrations of novobiocin or nalidixic acid according to the method of Onogi et al. (14). Novobiocin and nalidixic acid were obtained from Sigma Chemical Co.
Transduction with phage P1vir. Suppressor mutant cells were infected with phage P1vir propagated on QT186 cells. About 500 tetracycline-resistant transductants were obtained on each LB agar plate containing 7.5 µg of tetracycline/ml after incubation at 22°C for 6 days. Fifty of the transductants were isolated from each plate, purified, and analyzed for novobiocin hypersensitivity on LB agar plates containing 300 µg of novobiocin/ml after incubation for 5 days at 22°C.
DNA sequencing. To determine the mutation sites by DNA sequencing, we amplified the 2,580 bp of DNA fragments comprising the gyrB gene and its flanking regions from chromosomal DNA samples of four suppressor mutants (MQ40, MQ43, MQ44, and MQ45) and the parental AZ5372 strain by PCR using the forward primer 5'GTGCTGAACACGTTATAGACATGTCGGACG3' and the reverse primer 5'CAAGATTTTCGTAGGCCTGATAAGCGTAGC3'.
Fluorescence microscopy. Cells were stained with DAPI (4',6-diamino-2-phenylindole) for chromosomal DNA and observed with fluorescence and phase-contrast microscopes according to the method of Hiraga et al. (5).
Survival after irradiation with X rays. Cells grown exponentially in LB medium at 22°C were irradiated by X rays, diluted, spread on LB agar plates, and incubated at 22°C for 5 days. The colonies that appeared were counted.
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mukB::kan) was able to form colonies at 20 µg/ml but not at 50 µg/ml. Thus, the maximum concentrations of novobiocin allowing the survival of >50% of cells were 200 µg/ml in YK1100 and 20 µg/ml in AZ5372. The mukB null mutant was 10-fold more sensitive to novobiocin than the wild-type strain, consistent with previous results (14).
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FIG. 1. Novobiocin sensitivities of various strains in colony formation. Solid circles, parental strain YK1100 (W3110 trpC9941); open circles, AZ5372 (W3110 trpC9941 mukB::kan); open triangles, novobiocin-resistant suppressor mutants that were independently isolated from AZ5372. All 10 suppressor mutants showed the same sensitivity to novobiocin.
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TABLE 1. Properties of 10 mutants suppressing novobiocin hypersensitivity of mukB null mutation
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We sequenced the gyrB DNA fragments obtained from MQ40, MQ43, MQ44, MQ45, and AZ5372. We found that in all suppressor mutants tested, the guanosine residue at position 407 (the adenosine residue of the start codon ATG is defined as +1) is changed to thymidine, resulting in the replacement of arginine at position 136 by leucine of the beta subunit of DNA gyrase. The arginine residue at position 136 is conserved in the GyrB proteins of various bacterial species. This arginine residue is one of the key amino acids implicated in novobiocin binding (7; http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Software/Pfam/index.shtml). MQ40 showed weak suppression of temperature sensitivity, in contrast to the other sequenced clones (Table 1). We speculate that MQ40 has a second mutation, which affects expression of the altered GyrB protein, outside the sequenced region. The gyrB gene is known to be located in an operon, dnaA-dnaN-recF-gyrB.
Effect of novobiocin on cell growth and chromosome segregation in mukB null mutant cells.
To examine why the mukB null mutant is hypersensitive to low concentrations of novobiocin, we analyzed the effect of novobiocin on increase of turbidity of cultures in wild-type and mukB mutant strains. Cultures growing in LB medium at 22°C were incubated for 6 h in the presence of cephalexin alone or cephalexin plus novobiocin, as shown in Fig. 2. Cephalexin (10 µg/ml) was added to the cultures in order to inhibit cell division to prevent guillotining of the chromosome by septum closure in the mukB null mutant (4, 11, 22), because we expected that the abnormal structure of the chromosome in mukB mutant cells would be clearly observed in elongated cells incubated in the presence of cephalexin. Novobiocin was added at concentrations of 1,000 µg/ml in YK1100 and 100 µg/ml in AZ5372. These concentrations were five-fold higher than the maximum concentration of novobiocin allowing the survival of >50% of cells in each strain (Fig. 1). When cephalexin (10 µg/ml) alone was added, the turbidity of cultures increased exponentially for at least 6 h in both strains, suggesting that DNA and protein syntheses continued normally, although cell division was inhibited by cephalexin. The doubling times measured by turbidity increase were 155 and 190 min in YK1100 and AZ5372, respectively, under the conditions used. When 1,000 µg of novobiocin/ml was added to the culture of YK1100 together with cephalexin, the turbidity increased
1.5-fold for the first 2 h; however, the increase in turbidity was markedly inhibited after that (Fig. 2A). On the other hand, surprisingly, when 100 µg of novobiocin/ml was added to the culture of AZ5372, the turbidity increased exponentially for 6 h without any significant inhibitory effect (Fig. 2B), although the mukB mutant was unable to form colonies in the presence of the same concentration of novobiocin (Fig. 1). To confirm these results, we analyzed the effects of various concentrations of novobiocin on increase of turbidity after 6 h of incubation in both strains. As shown in Fig. 2C, the effects of novobiocin on growth were the same in both strains, implying that the effects of novobiocin on DNA and protein syntheses were the same in both strains. This indicates that the effect of muk mutation on the structure of chromosomal DNA, for example, decompaction or reduced superhelicity of chromosomal DNA (16, 19-21), does not affect DNA and protein syntheses, consistent with expectations. Thus, mukB mutant cells lost colony-forming ability in the presence of a low concentration of novobiocin, such as 100 µg/ml, even though DNA and protein syntheses continued at the levels of the wild-type strain. One might ask what the mechanism of novobiocin hypersensitivity is in the mukB mutant.
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FIG. 2. Effects of novibiocin on growth of cultures in YK1100 and AZ5372. (A) YK1100. Solid circles, cephalexin (10 µg/ml) alone; open circles, cephalexin plus 1,000 µg of novobiocin/ml. (B) AZ5372. Solid circles, cephalexin alone; open triangles, cephalexin plus 100 µg of novobiocin/ml. (C) Final value of turbidity after incubation for 6 h with or without indicated concentrations of novobiocin. The turbidity at zero time is 1. Solid circles, YK1100; open circles, AZ5372.
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FIG. 3. Merged images of cells stained with DAPI by fluorescence and phase-contrast microscopy. (A to D) YK1100; (E to K) AZ5372. (A and E) Before the addition of antibiotics. (B and F) Cephalexin (10 µg/ml) alone for 6 h. (C, G, I, J, and K) Cephalexin (10 µg/ml) and novobiocin (100 µg/ml) for 6 h. (D and H) Cephalexin (10 µg/ml) and novobiocin (1,000 µg/ml) for 6 h. The scale bars represent 5 µm.
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Sensitivity to nalidixic acid and X-ray irradiation in mukB null mutant cells. We analyzed mukB null mutant cells for sensitivity to another DNA gyrase inhibitor, nalidixic acid. The maximum concentration of nalidixic acid allowing colony formation was 1 µg/ml in both wild-type and mukB null mutant strains (Fig. 4A and B). The mukB mutant showed more resistance to X-ray irradiation than the wild-type strain (Fig. 4C). These results are discussed below.
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FIG. 4. Effects of nalidixic acid on colony-forming ability (A and B) and survival after X-ray irradiation (C). (A) YK1100; (B) AZ5372; (C) YK1100 (solid circles) and AZ5372 (open circles).
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In wild-type cells, the replisome complexes associated with diverging replication forks are closely associated with one another at midcell during the early phase of replication; however, they separate and migrate rapidly to one-quarter and three-quarter cell positions during replication. This event causes persistent separation of clockwise and counterclockwise replicating regions of the chromosome (4, 6, 13, 18). Protein-protein linkage between clockwise and counterclockwise replicating regions, e.g., by the hemimethylated DNA binding SeqA protein, might be broken off by the event. Two clusters of the MukFEB complex known to be located at the cell quarter positions (12) might participate in the event of migration of replication forks, because the mukB mutant has a defect in the regular subcellular localization of replication forks (Kohiyama et al., unpublished). Flow cytometry and immunofluorescence microscopy revealed that separation of sister chromosomes is delayed in mukB null mutant cells (Kohiyama et al., unpublished). This is consistent with frequent production of anucleate cells upon cell division in the mutant. The MukFEB complex might facilitate the resolution of interwound sister chromosomal DNA strands to form two separated nucleoids. Reduced superhelicity of bacterial and plasmid DNAs was observed after proteins in the mukB null mutant were removed (16, 19-21). However, no significant difference between the levels of compactness of nascent DNA labeled with 5-bromodeoxyuridine and bulk chromosomal DNA could be detected in the wild-type and mukB null mutant strains by immunofluorescence microscopy and fluorescence microscopy in vivo (Kohiyama et al., unpublished), in contrast to in vitro data (19-21). SeqA participates in the compactness of nascent and bulk chromosomal DNA in vivo, because decompaction of the chromosome was observed in the seqA null mutant but not in the dam null mutant in vivo (Kohiyama et al., unpublished). Temperature-sensitive growth, but not novobiocin hypersensitivity, of the mukB null mutation was suppressed by the seqA or dam null mutation (14). These results suggest that linkages of SeqA-SeqA interaction between nascent DNA segments in clockwise and counterclockwise replicating regions are probably harmful for cell growth in the genetic background lacking the MukFEB complex above 30°C in rich media. The MukFEB complex would act for separation of the SeqA-SeqA linkages between nascent DNA segments of clockwise and counterclockwise replicating regions. This idea is consistent with the phenomenon that the seqA or dam null mutations suppress the temperature sensitivity of the mukB null mutation.
S. Hiraga was supported by a grant from the Center of Excellence (COE).
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