Washington University, Department of Biology, Campus Box 1137, 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, Missouri 63130
Received 23 December 2004/ Accepted 9 March 2005
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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For studies of system I, proteobacteria such as Rhodobacter capsulatus (4, 5, 12, 25, 27), Paracoccus denitrificans (38-40), and Bradyrhizobium japonicum (44, 47, 48) have undergone extensive mutagenesis analysis and screening to discover genes involved in the system I pathway. Nine proteins are proven to be required for system I, two of which (DipZ/DsbD and HelX/CcmG) are thioreduction proteins for the reduction of the cytochrome c CXXCH signature motif; seven additional proteins are putatively involved in delivering heme to the periplasm (HelABCD/CcmABCD), as a periplasmic heme chaperone (CycJ/CcmE), and in the final ligation step (Ccl1/CcmF and Ccl2/CcmH). (See Discussion for a review of disulfide oxidizing requirements).
In contrast, no organism that possesses a system II pathway has been as thoroughly screened after random transposon mutagenesis to discover new genes involved in the pathway. Some studies of the thiol reduction components have been reported for the gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis (15, 50, 51), but for unknown reasons, insertions or null mutations in the ccsB and ccsA genes (called resBC), known to be part of system II, are lethal (29, 57). For the unicellular alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, in which the ccsB (ccs1) and ccsA genes were originally uncovered (22, 63), it has been suggested previously that components in addition to thioreduction proteins are necessary (22). This prediction is based on mutants whose defects map to other uncharacterized loci. Other genetic analyses of organisms with system II pathways (for examples, see reference 60) have been reviewed recently, as has the rationale for the use of the proteobacterium Bordetella pertussis to determine if additional components of the system II pathway exist (28). To date, four genes in B. pertussis have been shown to be necessary for system II (3). Constructed by directed mutagenesis, these include the genes for CcsB, CcsA, and two proteins called DipZ and CcsX, which are involved in the general thioreduction of periplasmic proteins.
We previously reported that a tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine (TMPD) oxidase screen was able to distinguish B. pertussis wild-type colonies (oxidase positive) from strains that are deficient in the assembly of c-type cytochromes (oxidase negative), although these mutants grow like wild-type strains (3). This screen is identical to that frequently used to uncover the system I genes in those organisms for which biogenesis mutations are not lethal. In the present study, we used the oxidase screen with transposon-based random mutagenesis of B. pertussis to search for genes involved in system II. Because the mechanism(s) needed for oxidation of the CXXCH disulfide did not emerge in this screen, we investigated the typical disulfide bond (dsb) pathway. The generation of a targeted dsbB mutant and alkaline phosphatase screens in the dsbB background were carried out to uncover redundancy in the B. pertussis periplasmic oxidation pathway. From these results, we hypothesize that low-molecular-weight compounds (e.g., oxygen and cystine) supplement the normal dsb oxidation pathway in B. pertussis.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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pir), was mixed with B. pertussis and allowed to conjugate on blood agar plates overnight. These pools were resuspended and plated on blood agar containing antibiotics. Since the B. pertussis BC39 chromosome carries nalidixic acid resistance, plating exconjugants on this drug in addition to kanamycin ensures selection for only B. pertussis with a chromosomally integrated transposon. Either kanamycin or gentamicin resistance genes, both of which are located on the transposon, were used for selection, with no significant difference in yield. A total of 240 independent conjugations were carried out to yield the 16,000 colonies that were screened. (The colonies from single conjugations expressed green fluorescent protein [GFP] at various levels. This observation and the fact that no two oxidase mutants that were sequenced gave identical inserts indicate that very few siblings were screened.) Colonies were tested for defects in cytochrome c biogenesis by the TMPD oxidase assay. Colonies were transferred by toothpick to antibiotic blood agar plates with a nitrocellulose overlay, incubated for 3 days, and then soaked in a 0.1% TMPD solution and compared to wild-type (blue) and mutant (colorless) controls for phenotype, as described previously. After restreaking the strains and performing a second oxidase test, we studied the strains further. For cytochrome c profiles, cells were grown in 1.5 ml minimal medium, harvested, and extracted with B-PER reagent (Pierce) for sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and heme stains. Twenty-seven mutants are characterized further in the present study. (Three additional transposon mutants that produced the oxidase-negative/heme stain-negative phenotype were not complemented by the respective wild-type gene, in which Tn5 was located, to an oxidase-positive phenotype. However, these were complemented by a ccsBA plasmid [pRGK342]. Furthermore, we could not recapitulate the oxidase-negative defect by directly inactivating the respective gene in BC39. We conclude that a small percentage of transposon mutants actually have either point mutations in unlinked loci [here, ccsBA] or additional IS50 transpositions, as has been noted previously for B. pertussis.) For sequencing the regions of insertions, we used genomic DNA that was purified by the QIAGEN bacterial genomic DNA kit. Cycle sequencing was accomplished using this DNA as the template and pTGN as the control with BigDye terminators. Initially, sequencing with three different oligonucleotides that were complementary to the Tn5 ends in pTGN was attempted. However, for unknown reasons, only one of these primers gave consistent results that could be unambiguously read using the genomic DNA as the template. The sequence of that oligonucleotide is 5'-CGTCAATTCGAGGGCCGCACTT-3' (TGNUP3), the last four bases of which are part of the Tn5 inverted repeat. We estimate that the automated sequence output allowed us to determine the sequence accurately within eight nucleotides. Construction of RGK343 (dsbB knockout). DsbB and adjoining DNA was amplified from Tohama III genomic DNA with oligonucleotides containing BamHI restriction sites. The oligonucleotides used were 5'-CGCTGGATCCCGTGTTCAAGGAGCTGGAAG-3' (forward dsbB) and 5'-AACGGATCCAGTCCTGGCGCCTGTCGG-3' (reverse dsbB). The amplified genes were cloned into pUC119 as a BamHI fragment to form pRGK338 (pUC119dsbB). To construct pUC-derived plasmids with dsbB replaced with a Kanr cassette, the pUC and upstream and downstream portions of dsbB were outwardly amplified with the following oligonucleotides containing MluI sites: 5'-CCGCTCGAGGTTGCATGATCTGCCGCATGAC-3' (5' outward dsbB) and 5'-GATCTCGAGCCTGGCGCTGTTCGTGATCGTGCT-3' (3' outward dsbB). The resulting PCR products are linearized plasmids containing dsbB with the center of the open reading frame deleted. The Kanr cassette from pUC4-KIXX (Pharmacia) was inserted into the XhoI sites of pRGK338 to yield pRGK339 (pUC119dsbB-Kan). The BamHI fragment from pRGK339 containing the Kanr cassette was then subcloned into the BamHI site of the Gmr Sms suicide plasmid vector pSS2141 to yield pRGK340 (pSS2141dsbB-Kan). pRGK340 was conjugated into BC39 and grown on blood agar containing kanamycin and streptomycin (the latter was used to select against the vector and for double recombinants with the Kanr cassette in the chromosome).
Alkaline phosphatase assay. Alkaline phosphatase activity was detected visually in B. pertussis colonies that were grown on nitrocellulose disks overlaying blood agar plates and then transferred to LB plates containing the chromogenic indicator 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolylphosphate (XP; Sigma Chemical). Alkaline phosphatase activities were measured in cells grown in liquid cultures by a method adapted from that described by Brickman and Beckwith (7). Briefly, a 5-ml B. pertussis culture was grown to mid-log phase. A 20-µl aliquot of each culture was diluted in 0.04% Sigma 104 to a final volume of 200 µl and incubated at 37°C until the optical density at 450 nm (OD450) of the solution was between 0.1 and 0.4 (20 min to 3 h). Reactions were stopped by the addition of 20 µl of monobasic potassium phosphate. Protein concentrations in each culture were determined using a modified bicinchoninic acid (BCA) assay (Pierce). Relative activities were calculated using the formula (OD450 x 103)/protein concentration (mg)/time (min).
Production of antibodies to CcsB. For overexpression of the periplasmic domain of the CcsB protein in E. coli, the coding sequence of this region was amplified by PCR using Tohama III genomic DNA as the template and the oligonucleotides 5'-CAGCCCATGGCCATCAACGGCGAAATG-3' and 5'-CGGGGATCCTGGAAAACGCTGCCCTGG-3'. The left primer engineers an NcoI site, and the right primer engineers a BamHI site. The resulting amplified product was digested with NcoI and BamHI and cloned into the plasmid pET2-Blue (Novagen) to create the plasmid pRGK341 (pET2ccsB-His). The CcsB periplasmic protein containing a C-terminal six-His tag was overexpressed from pRGK341 in the Tuner strain of E. coli. Cells were grown to mid-exponential phase (A600 = 0.6) in LB containing 50 µg/ml carbenicillin at 37°C and induced with IPTG (isopropyl-ß-D-thiogalactopyranoside; 1 mM) for 3 h. Cells were harvested, washed in 20 mM Tris (pH 8), and resuspended in lysis buffer (20 mM Tris [pH 8], lysozyme [1 mg/ml], Triton X-100 [1%]). After incubation on ice for 20 min, the bacteria were lysed by sonication (twice for 3 min each; Branson model 200 sonicator) using a microtip at a power setting of 40% and a duty cycle of 50%. Debris was removed by centrifugation (10,000 x g, 15 min, 4°C), and the six-His-tagged proteins were purified from the supernatant fluids by chromatography over a nickel affinity resin according to the recommendations of the manufacturer (Novagen). The eluted protein was concentrated with Centricon-30 columns (Millipore) and dialyzed against storage buffer (20 mM Tris [pH 8], 200 mM NaCl) to remove the imidazole. The purity of the preparations, assessed by SDS-PAGE and staining with Coomassie brilliant blue, was greater than 95%. Protein concentrations were determined using a BCA assay (Pierce). Antiserum was generated in New Zealand White rabbits at a commercial facility (Cocalico Biologicals, Inc.). The antibodies were purified from the serum by ammonium sulfate precipitation and used at a 1:700 dilution for Western blotting.
Membrane fractionation. B. pertussis strain BC39 and derivatives were grown at 37°C in Stainer-Scholte medium containing the appropriate antibiotics for 24 to 36 h to an A600 of 1.3 to 1.5. Cells were treated as follows. Cell cultures were harvested by centrifugation at 15,000 x g for 15 min at 4°C. Cells were resuspended at 1/100 the original culture volume in 10 mM Tris (pH 8) and sonicated twice for 3 min each at 4°C (Branson model 200 sonicator with a microtip at a power setting of 40% and a duty cycle of 50%). Unbroken cells were removed by centrifugation at 10,000 x g for 15 min at 4°C and discarded. Soluble and membrane fractions were isolated by ultracentrifugation of the crude sonicate fraction at 100,000 x g for 2 h. The supernatant contained soluble periplasmic and cytoplasmic proteins. The pelleted membranes were washed once and resuspended in 10 mM Tris, pH 8. Solubilized membrane extracts were prepared by the addition of Triton X-100 to a final concentration of 1%, incubation on ice for 1 h, and centrifugation for 15 min at 15,000 x g. Insoluble proteins were resuspended in 10 mM Tris, pH 8.
Construction of pRGK342 (pBA). The coding sequence of B. pertussis ccsA was amplified from the Tohama III genomic DNA template with the oligonucleotides 5'-CGTAAAGATCTTTGAATGTCTACCACCACCAGC-3' and 5'-AAGGGGTACCAAAGACAATGCCCCGCATCTG-3'. The left primer corresponds to the N terminus of ccsA and engineers a BglII site followed by a stop codon, and the right primer corresponds to the C terminus of ccsA and engineers a KpnI site. The amplified product was digested with BglII and KpnI and ligated to the vector pRGK309 (3), which was digested with BamHI and KpnI. pRGK309 contains the coding sequences of cycC and ccsB with an in-frame C-terminal translational fusion to alkaline phosphatase, which is replaced by CcsA in the resulting plasmid, pRGK342 (pBA). pRGK342 was verified by restriction digestion and DNA sequencing.
B-PER extraction reagent. B-PER protein extracts from B. pertussis and E. coli were prepared as directed by the supplier (Pierce). B-PER uses a proprietary nonionic detergent in 20 mM Tris, pH 7.5, to extract proteins; thus, the resulting B-PER extract contains soluble, periplasmic, and some membrane proteins. Briefly, 1.5- to 5-ml cultures were pelleted at 13,000 rpm in a microcentrifuge and frozen at 80°C for a minimum of 15 min to aid in cell disruption (longer freezing [overnight] resulted in enhanced membrane protein extraction in our experiment). Cell pellets were thawed on ice and resuspended in 1/25 to 1/10 of the original culture volume in B-PER extraction reagent (determined empirically). The resuspension was vortexed for 1 min and centrifuged at 13,000 rpm for 10 min to separate insoluble debris. The supernatant was saved, and the protein concentration was determined by BCA assay using bovine serum albumin as a standard.
Chemiluminescent heme staining. Heme staining was performed as described previously (17). Heme staining of E. coli extracts was performed using SuperSignal Femto chemiluminescent substrate (Pierce), and the results were exposed using an LAS-1000plus luminescent image analyzer charge-coupled-device camera system (Fujifilm). B. pertussis heme staining was performed using SuperSignal Pico chemiluminescent substrate (Pierce), and the results were revealed by exposure to X-ray film (Kodak X-OMAT AR).
Western blotting. For analysis of the CcsB protein, extracts were first separated by 12% or 15% SDS-PAGE and electroblotted onto Hybond-C nitrocellulose filters (Amersham). Western analyses were performed using the SuperSignal West Pico ECL detection system (Pierce). Protein A peroxidase (Sigma) was used as the secondary label (1:1,300 dilution). Blots probed with anti-CcsB were exposed to X-ray film (Kodak X-OMAT AR).
| RESULTS AND DISCUSSION |
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Eleven Tn5 insertions were located in the cycC-ccsB-ccsA operon. Since the single insertion in cycC, which encodes a cytochrome c4, still produced low levels of all c-type cytochromes (Table 2), it is likely that this insertion is partially polar on the ccsB gene and does not represent a new biosynthetic gene. The 10 remaining mutants, 4 with insertions in ccsB and 6 with insertions in ccsA, produce <1% of the wild-type levels of c-type cytochromes (Fig. 1C, lane 3). The synthesis of cytochromes in these mutants is not corrected by DTT (Fig. 1C, lanes 4 and 5 [example of results with CB75]).
Seven mutants possessed Tn5 insertions in genes encoding the cytochrome c oxidase subunits (ctaD, ctaC, and ctaE) or the biosynthesis of the a-type heme associated with the oxidase (ctaB). These genes are located at a single locus in B. pertussis, as described previously using the genomic sequence (28). B-PER extracts of cells from the ctaB and ctaD mutants showed wild-type levels and profiles of c-type cytochromes (not shown). Interestingly, the ctaC mutant CB08 had wild-type levels of c-type cytochromes but was completely lacking two c-type cytochromes that migrated at approximately 40 kDa and 24 kDa on SDS-PAGE (Fig. 1D, compare lanes 5 and 6 to lanes 1, 2, and 4). The ctaC-encoded subunit of the B. pertussis cytochrome c oxidase has a CXXCH motif and is a predicted 42-kDa c-type cytochrome, explaining this deficiency in CB08. Bengtsson et al. (6) showed that CtaC in B. subtilis is truncated in the N-terminal end, resulting in a 28-kDa heme-containing fragment in addition to the 40-kDa full-length protein. We suggest that a similar truncation occurred in B. pertussis, resulting in a second heme staining band around 24 kDa that is absent in CB08. One can also surmise from this result that the cytochrome c oxidase in B. pertussis is a caa3 type, similar to that in B. subtilis (6, 61). B. pertussis has homologues of the CcoNOP subunits of the cbb3 oxidase as determined previously by BLAST analysis (36). However, B. pertussis ccoN is a pseudogene, due to a frameshift mutation after codon 220; this fact has been reconfirmed by the Sanger Sequencing Center (43). Based on the ccoN frameshift and our ability to isolate oxidase-negative colonies in transposon insertion mutants of the caa3 oxidase, we speculate that the cbb3 oxidase is not functional in B. pertussis.
An insertion in one mutant was located in a gene that we designated sco2, which is related to the Sco1 protein in eukaryotes (19, 23, 42, 52) and B. subtilis known to be required for assembly of the cytochrome c oxidase. A study of B. subtilis has suggested that the Sco1 homolog, called YpmQ, is involved in CuA insertion into the oxidase (32). As in our study, the B. subtilis ypmQ mutant was TMPD oxidase negative. Interestingly, the B. pertussis genome has two genes related to sco, one directly downstream of the aforementioned cta genes, called sco1 previously (28), and the sco2 discovered here. Clearly the Sco2 protein is necessary for activity (assembly) of the cytochrome c oxidase in B. pertussis. It is possible that a Sco1/Sco2 heteromer is functioning in B. pertussis, since there is precedence for such a model with yeast (31). We have not studied this aspect further.
The insertion of one mutant was located in the DNA directly upstream of the hemZ (hemH) ATG start codon. This gene encodes the B. pertussis ferrochelatase, which inserts reduced iron into protoporphyrin IX (62). Indeed, this mutant secretes large amounts of a fluorescent compound which could be protoporphyrin IX, as other hemZ mutants have previously been reported to secrete (18, 37). We speculate that as a result of this insertion, the transcription of hemZ is directed by a weak promoter within Tn5, reducing the levels of heme produced and thus having a pleiotropic effect on cytochrome production. Consistent with this hypothesis, CB15 produces less than 10% of the c-type cytochromes, and it grows more slowly than any of the other mutants which have wild-type growth properties under the conditions tested.
In conclusion, for most genes described here, we isolated multiple strains with insertions and in different regions of the genes. Given this result and the genome size (4.1 megabase pairs) and number of colonies analyzed (16,000 colonies), we estimate approximately 95% saturation with the screen. We suggest that it is likely that no new genes for the system II pathway exist. Other than the thioreduction system, CcsB and CcsA are necessary and may be sufficient for the assembly process. One question that emerges is why no genes involved in disulfide bond formation were isolated, which we address next.
The dsb pathway is not essential for cytochrome c biogenesis in B. pertussis. It is surprising that the screen did not yield strains with insertions in genes encoding the dsb oxidizing pathway. The dsb oxidizing pathway, consisting of DsbA and DsbB, is responsible for forming disulfide bonds in the periplasm of gram-negative bacteria (8, 46). In E. coli, DsbA was shown to be required for formate-dependent nitrate reduction due to a defect in cytochrome c biosynthesis (33). Additionally, the synthesis of endogenous holocytochromes c and heterologously produced Paracoccus denitrificans holocytochrome c550 in E. coli was shown to be lost in dsbA and dsbB mutants (49). B. pertussis possesses a single DsbA and DsbB homolog (by BLAST analysis with dsbA exhibiting 24% identity and dsbB with 28% identity to E. coli homologs) (see also reference 54). To investigate if B. pertussis DsbB is required for holocytochrome synthesis and disulfide bond production, a directed knockout strain was generated via the insertion of a kanamycin resistance cassette by homologous recombination. The dsbB insertion was confirmed by PCR analysis, and the dsbB mutant was analyzed for cytochrome c assembly. The DsbB strain (RGK343) produces wild-type levels of holocytochromes c (Fig. 2, lanes 1 and 6), which suggests that an alternative mechanism to oxidize the CXXCH motif exists in B. pertussis.
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To establish whether insertions were located in phoA or a secondary dsb pathway, plasmid DNA was isolated from the Pho colonies and subsequently transformed into the CC118 (Pho) strain of E. coli. Transformants were plated on LB agar containing tetracycline (pCycC:PhoA selection). Of 30 Pho B. pertussis mutants checked in this manner, all 30 had insertions in the plasmid-borne phoA as determined by their resistance to kanamycin and Pho phenotypes. As a control, plasmids isolated from Pho+ B. pertussis strains yielded Pho+, kanamycin-sensitive CC118 strains. These results suggest that under the growth conditions used, a second redundant periplasmic oxidation protein(s) does not exist (or is essential for growth). Potentially, a small molecule such as cystine or oxygen may be sufficient for disulfide bond formation and apocytochrome c oxidation in B. pertussis. Since B. pertussis is an obligate aerobe, testing for direct oxygen oxidation is technically not feasible. Cystine is a required growth factor for B. pertussis; thus, completely removing it from growth media is not possible (53, 54). However, changing the levels of cystine did not perturb cytochrome c synthesis (not shown). The dsbB mutant is also no more sensitive to DTT, as determined by doubling time or cytochrome c biosynthesis.
Our results are in agreement with previous studies on pertussis toxin production and secretion in B. pertussis dsbA and dsbB mutants (55). DsbA and DsbB are not required for generating an intermolecular disulfide between the pertussis toxin secretion proteins PtlF and PtlI (55). However, formation of the 11 intramolecular disulfide bonds that are required for pertussis toxin assembly is defective in dsbA or dsbB mutants. This supports the hypothesis that an additional, non-protein-based process may be responsible for oxidizing a subset of periplasmic proteins in B. pertussis, possibly those proteins with a single or few disulfide bonds.
Similarly, DsbA and DsbB are not directly required for cytochrome c biosynthesis in R. capsulatus (13) or B. subtilis (16). However, experiments with R. capsulatus and B. subtilis show that a dsbB mutation suppresses the TMPD phenotype of a ccdA mutant. CcdA is functionally and structurally related to DipZ/DsbD. It has been proposed previously (13) that after the secretion of apocytochrome into the periplasm, the cysteine residues of the heme-binding CXXCH motif are oxidized by DsbB/DsbA. In a ccdA mutant, the oxidized heme-binding cysteines cannot be rereduced; thus, heme ligation is blocked. In the B. subtilis and R. capsulatus ccdA mutants, a compensatory dsbA or dsbB knockout restores thiol redox homeostasis with respect to cytochromes c. This allows reduced apocytochrome secreted into the periplasm to remain in a reduced state that is competent for heme ligation. Thus, R. capsulatus and B. subtilis may not strictly require the heme-binding cysteine residues of apocytochrome c to be oxidized and subsequently rereduced prior to heme ligation. This situation does not exist in E. coli, possibly because E. coli requires immediate apocytochrome oxidation to escape rapid proteolysis (13). We have investigated whether a dsbB defect will compensate for a dipZ defect in B. pertussis. With RGK343, we found that an insertion in mutant strain CB82 is located in dipZ and is TMPD negative. Therefore, a B. pertussis dipZ dsbB double mutant is unable to synthesize cytochromes c and is corrected by exogenous DTT. This mutant is also PhoA+ when pCycC:PhoA is present. This demonstrates that cytochrome c biogenesis is blocked in the dsbB dipZ double mutant, as it is in the dipZ mutant alone (e.g., CB82 compared to CB10). In contrast to R. capsulatus and B. subtilis, a dsbB mutation does not suppress the dipZ mutation in B. pertussis, presumably due to complete (non-DsbB-catalyzed) oxidation of the heme-binding cysteines of the apocytochrome. These results are also consistent with the hypothesis that in B. pertussis, oxygen or another small oxidizing molecule is responsible for oxidizing disulfide bonds in the periplasm in the absence of DsbB/DsbA.
Evidence that CcsB and CcsA form a complex in B. pertussis. The results of random insertion mutagenesis and oxidase screening suggest that with the proper periplasmic reducing environment and heme availability, all that is necessary for cytochrome c assembly are the CcsA and CcsB proteins. We decided to further investigate CcsB and CcsA from B. pertussis and their localizations, syntheses, and quaternary structures. CcsB (3) and CcsA (20) are predicted membrane proteins with four and six transmembrane regions, respectively. The domain topology was demonstrated using lacZ and phoA methods. In C. reinhardtii, CcsB (Ccs1) appears to be present but at reduced levels in strains with a ccsA mutation or any of three other ccs mutations (14). In another study by Hamel and colleagues, CcsB appears to migrate in a complex on native gels, but this putative complex is not present in a ccsA mutant (21). Hamel et al. concluded that the large size of this complex, greater than 200 kDa, suggests that other components besides CcsA and CcsB are present, a result that is consistent with the C. reinhardtii genetic analysis cited above.
To begin to study the locations and potential complex formations of CcsB and CcsA from proteobacteria, we generated antisera to the 435-residue periplasmic domain (P2) of the B. pertussis CcsB protein (3). This was used to probe various B. pertussis strains and soluble and membrane fractions (Fig. 3). The antisera reacted with the isolated 50-kDa P2 polypeptide used as an antigen (Fig. 3, lanes 8 and 9). These sera also reacted well on Western blots to a polypeptide of approximately 72 kDa in B. pertussis crude extracts from the wild type (WT) (Fig. 3, lane 5) that is absent in a ccsB mutant (lane 2). The predicted molecular size of CcsB was 76 kDa. CcsB was also absent in a ccsA mutant (lane 1) but present in dipZ (and ccsX) mutants. A lack of CcsB in a ccsA mutant cannot be due to polarity, as ccsA is downstream of ccsB and only ccsA is necessary to complement this mutation. We conclude that the CcsB protein is unstable and degraded in the ccsA mutant. This suggests that the bacterial CcsB and CcsA proteins form a stable complex. We isolated membrane and soluble fractions from the WT and the ccsB and ccsA mutants, as well as various ccsB or ccsA mutants with a complementing plasmid. These fractions were probed for CcsB. The CcsB protein is a membrane protein (Fig. 3, lanes 10 to 13) that can be solubilized by 1% Triton X-100 (lane 23). The membrane fractions of strains without a functional ccsB or ccsA gene did not possess the CcsB polypeptide (Fig. 3, lanes 14 and 15). These results support the contention that a CcsBA complex provides both the heme export and cytochrome c-heme ligation functions of system II.
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| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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This work was supported by NIH grant GM47909 to R.G.K.
| FOOTNOTES |
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