Previous Article
Journal of Bacteriology, April 2005, p. 2920-2925, Vol. 187, No. 8
0021-9193/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JB.187.8.2920-2925.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Positive Selection for Loss-of-Function tat Mutations Identifies Critical Residues Required for TatA Activity
Matthew G. Hicks,1
Philip A. Lee,1,
George Georgiou,2
Ben C. Berks,3 and
Tracy Palmer1,4*
Department of Molecular Microbiology, John Innes Centre,1
School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich,4
Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom,3
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin, Texas2
Received 16 November 2004/
Accepted 3 January 2005

ABSTRACT
The Tat system, found in the cytoplasmic membrane of many bacteria,
is a general export pathway for folded proteins. Here we describe
the development of a method, based on the transport of chloramphenicol
acetyltransferase, that allows positive selection of mutants
defective in Tat function. We have demonstrated the utility
of this method by selecting novel loss-of-function alleles of
tatA from a pool of random
tatA mutations. Most of the mutations
that were isolated fall in the amphipathic region of TatA, emphasizing
the pivotal role that this part of the protein plays in TatA
function.

TEXT
The Tat (twin arginine translocation) pathway is a protein export
system found in the cytoplasmic membranes of most bacteria and
in the thylakoid membranes of plant chloroplasts. The key feature
of the Tat machinery that distinguishes it from all other protein
transport systems is that it translocates prefolded proteins
across energy-transducing membranes (reviewed in references
2 and
6). Proteins are targeted to the Tat machinery by N-terminal
cleavable signal peptides that harbor a consensus S-R-R-X-F-L-K
twin arginine motif, where the consecutive arginine residues
are almost invariant and are essential for export (
5,
30). Work
with
Escherichia coli has identified four genes,
tatA,
tatB,
tatC, and
tatE, that encode membrane-bound components of the
Tat machinery (
7,
26,
27,
34). TatA forms a high-molecular-weight
homo-oligomeric membrane-bound complex that is thought to act
as the protein-conducting channel of the Tat system (
19,
22,
23,
28). TatE is a cryptic homolog of TatA that probably arose
via gene duplication (
19). TatB is distantly related to TatA/TatE
but has a distinct role in protein transport (
27). TatB forms
a tight stoichiometric complex with TatC (
8), which is the largest
and most highly conserved of the Tat components. The TatBC unit
forms a membrane-bound receptor that recognizes twin arginine
signal peptides prior to translocation (
1,
11).
The E. coli Tat machinery is capable of exporting a variety of heterologous substrates if they are equipped with typical E. coli Tat signal peptides (25, 26, 31, 32). However, attempts to use reporter proteins to provide a positive selection for Tat pathway inactivation have met with limited success. It has been reported that colicin V, when targeted to the Tat pathway by fusion to a twin arginine signal peptide, can be used to probe Tat functionality because colicin V is only bactericidal from the periplasmic side of the inner membrane (16). However, this methodology is of uncertain physiological relevance, because expression of the Tat signal peptide-colicin V fusion under conditions that normally prevent transport by the Tat pathway still resulted in cell killing (16, 17).
In this report, we describe the development of a facile positive selection for loss of Tat function. The screen is based on previous observations that chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT), when fused to the twin-arginine signal peptide of the FdnG protein, is exported to the periplasm by the Tat system (31). CAT inactivates the antibiotic chloramphenicol by acetylation using acetyl-coenzyme A (CoA), which is only present in the cytoplasm, as a cosubstrate. Thus, cells that export the FdnGsig-CAT fusion protein should be chloramphenicol sensitive while cells that fail to export the fusion will be chloramphenicol resistant. Previous attempts to use this strategy to select for Tat mutants failed, because the Tat system became saturated with the fusion protein, resulting in a buildup of CAT activity in the cytoplasm (31). To circumvent this problem we have constructed vector pSSCAT, based on the medium copy number plasmid pSU40 (4), which expresses the FdnGsig-CAT fusion protein under the control of the constitutive tatA promoter. The tat wild-type strain MC4100 transformed with this construct is sensitive to chloramphenicol at a concentration of 10 µg/ml on solid media. However, the cognate Tat
tatA/
tatE strain, JARV16, harboring pSSCAT, grows quite readily in the presence of the same concentration of antibiotic (Fig. 1A). Complementation of the Tat defect of JARV16/pSSCAT with plasmid-borne tatA (pFAT415) rendered the strain sensitive to chloramphenicol, whereas transformation with an equivalent empty plasmid vector (pBluescript) does not perturb the ability of the tat mutant to grow in the presence of chloramphenicol (Fig. 1B).
To verify the functionality of our screen, we first constructed
a library of
tatA mutants that was randomized at the codon for
Phe
39. We have previously reported that substitution of Phe
39 for Ala results in a TatA protein that is completely inactive
for Tat transport and that, in addition, displays genetic dominance
(
15). The F
39X library was constructed using an overlap extension
protocol (
14). Briefly, two DNA fragments were amplified in
separate PCRs using the oligonucleotide pairs Unirep1 (5'-GCGCGAATTCCTGTCGGTTGGCGCAAAACACGCTG-3')
and F39Xup (5'-GCTCATTCGTTTTTTNNNGCCTTTGATCGACGC-3') or F39Xdown
(5'-GCGTCGATCAAAGGCNNNAAAAAAGCAATGAGC-3') and TatArev (5'-GCGCGGTACCCTTCTACAGACATGTTTTACGGG-3'),
where N indicates an equal mixture of A, G, C, or T at that
position. The two PCR products were then mixed, denatured, reannealed,
and used as templates for a further round of PCR using Unirep1
and TatArev as primers. The products were digested with EcoRI
and BamHI and cloned into pBluescript. The
tatAF
39X library
was transformed into the
tatA/
tatE strain, JARV16 harboring
pSSCAT, and plated onto medium containing 10 µg of chloramphenicol/ml
to identify substitutions that inactivated the function of TatA.
Colonies were streaked onto fresh chloramphenicol-containing
plates to confirm resistance and the entire
tatA coding region
analyzed by DNA sequencing. Forty-two percent of the clones
in the library allowed growth of the
tatAE mutant in the presence
of chloramphenicol, indicating that they specified an inactive
TatA protein. Analysis of 48 mutant alleles isolated in this
screen is shown in Table
1. Eleven different amino acid substitutions,
many with several alternative codons, were isolated. Assessment
of the effect of these mutations on the export of native Tat
substrates indicated that substitutions to His, Lys, Arg, or
Ser yielded a Tat system that was completely inactive, as judged
by the inability to grow in the presence of 2% SDS (which screens
for export of Tat substrates AmiA and AmiC [18]) (Table
1).
The remaining substitutions (Asp, Glu, Gly, Ile, Leu, Thr, or
Val) had minimal activity, since they allowed some growth in
the presence of SDS but possessed extremely low levels of the
Tat-dependent periplasmic enzyme trimethylamine-
N-oxide (TMAO
reductase). Using standard site-directed mutagenesis methods
(
24), we constructed the eight remaining amino acid substitutions
that we did not isolate from the chloramphenicol screen. Of
these, only Trp or Tyr residues gave a significant level of
Tat transport activity. Interestingly, every one of the 17 amino
acid substitutions that severely affected Tat function displayed
genetic dominance in that they grossly affected the level of
TMAO reductase activity when coexpressed in a Tat wild-type
background (data not shown). We conclude from these observations
that the aromatic character of the amino acid residue at
E. coli tatA codon 39 is critical for the normal function of TatA.
View this table:
[in this window]
[in a new window]
|
TABLE 1. Analysis of substitutions isolated from the tatAF39X library by selection for chloramphenicol resistance in the presence of pSSCATa
|
We next went on to exploit our selection strategy to probe a
library of random mutations in
tatA to isolate variants that
are nonfunctional. The library was constructed using error-prone
PCR (
12) and contained over one million members, with an average
error of 1 to 2 substitutions per gene. Approximately 1% of
the clones in the library allowed growth of the
tatA/tatE mutant
in the presence of chloramphenicol. Sequence analysis of 69
clones, chosen at random, showed that 28 had substitutions that
resulted in a single amino acid change in TatA, while 41 had
multiple substitutions. Identification and analysis of the single
amino acid substitutions in TatA is shown in Table
2, and the
positions of the mutations within the TatA sequence is given
in Fig.
2A. Again, some of the mutations (I
28T, D
31G, G
33S)
yielded a completely inactive Tat system, as evidenced by the
inability to support growth in the presence of SDS, which is
the most sensitive test for Tat activity (
18,
21). The remainder
gave very low, but measurable, Tat activity. All of the mutations
fell within the first 42 residues of TatA, which is within the
region defined as critical for activity by previous truncation
analysis (
21). Most of the single substitutions lie within the
predicted helical amphipathic region of TatA rather than the
predicted transmembrane helix. A plot of the positions of these
mutations on a helical wheel, shown in Fig.
2B, shows that all
except two mutations are on the hydrophobic face of the helix
and that about two-thirds of the polar face does not have any
mutation.
View this table:
[in this window]
[in a new window]
|
TABLE 2. Analysis of substitutions isolated from the tatA random mutant library by selection for chloramphenicol resistance in the presence of pSSCATa
|
Analysis of membrane fractions of the
tatA/
tatE strain expressing
the TatA variants showed that variants possessing substitutions
within the amphipathic region were stably inserted in the membrane
(Fig.
3A). By contrast, those variants in which the substitutions
were located in the transmembrane helix could not be detected
in the membrane fraction (Fig.
3A) or, indeed, elsewhere in
the cell. It is, therefore, likely that these substitutions
affect the membrane insertion, and hence the stability, of the
protein. It should be noted, however, that these substitutions
support a very low but measurable level of Tat activity (Table
2), and therefore we conclude that a very low level of these
variants must be present.
The amphipathic region variants were subjected to treatment
with the primary amine-specific, membrane-permeable, cross-linking
reagent disuccinimidyl suberate (DSS) as a test of their ability
to oligomerize. We have shown previously that this reagent generates
cross-links between up to three adjacent TatA protomers (
13).
While most of the substitutions did not affect TatA protomer
association, a few of the mutants gave cross-linking patterns
that were significantly different from that of native TatA.
Incubation of the I
28T variant with DSS resulted, for unknown
reasons, in loss of the protein. Variants T
22A, D
31G, and A
42T
showed a reduction in the level of cross-linking, and both substitutions
at glycine 33, G
33S and G
33D, had a severe effect on the ability
of TatA to self interact, with the G
33D variant showing a complete
loss of cross-linking. These observations are consistent with
the substitutions giving a significant perturbation of the local
protein-protein interactions. In particular, it is likely that
Gly
33 represents a helix-packing interaction, which is perturbed
by the bulkier Ser, and that substitution of Asp results in
active electrostatic repulsion of the helices. Alternatively,
G
33D may be undergoing electrostatic repulsion by the phospholipid
head groups.
In conclusion, we have reported a generally applicable positive selection screen for the isolation of E. coli tat mutants and demonstrated its utility by screening libraries of tatA for loss-of-function alleles. Our results complement previous site-directed mutagenesis and truncation studies of TatA (3, 15, 21) and, in addition, highlight novel mutations that inactivate Tat function.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the BBSRC via grant 43/P16795 and
a grant-in-aid to the John Innes Centre. M.H. and P.L. were
the recipients of BBSRC studentships. Work in the Georgiou laboratory
was supported by NIH grant GM069872 and by the Foundation for
Research. T.P. is supported by the MRC via award of a Senior
Non Clinical Fellowship.
We thank Frank Sargent for helpful discussion.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Molecular Microbiology, John Innes Centre, Norwich NR4 7UH, United Kingdom. Phone: 44-1603-450726. Fax: 44-1603-450778. E-mail:
tracy.palmer{at}bbsrc.ac.uk.

Present address: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712. 

REFERENCES
1 - Alami, M., I. Luke, S. Deitermann, G. Eisner, H. G. Koch, J. Brunner, J., and M. Muller. 2003. Differential interactions between a twin-arginine signal peptide and its translocase in Escherichia coli. Mol. Cell 12:937-946.[CrossRef][Medline]
2 - Alder, N. N., and S. M. Theg. 2003. Energy use by biological protein transport pathways. Trends Biochem. Sci. 28:442-451.[CrossRef][Medline]
3 - Barrett, C. M. L., J. E. Mathers, and C. Robinson. 2003. Identification of key regions within the Escherichia coli TatAB subunits. FEBS Lett. 537:42-46.[CrossRef][Medline]
4 - Bartolomé, B., Y. Jubete, E. Martínez, and F. de la Cruz. 1991. Construction and properties of a family of pACYC184-derived cloning vectors compatible with pBR322 and its derivatives. Gene 102:75-78.[CrossRef][Medline]
5 - Berks, B. C. 1996. A common export pathway for proteins binding complex redox cofactors? Mol. Microbiol. 22:393-404.[CrossRef][Medline]
6 - Berks, B. C., T. Palmer, and F. Sargent. 2003. The Tat protein translocation pathway and its role in microbial physiology. Adv. Microb. Physiol. 47:187-254.[Medline]
7 - Bogsch, E., F. Sargent, N. R. Stanley, B. C. Berks, C. Robinson, and T. Palmer. 1998. An essential component of a novel bacterial protein export system with homologues in plastids and mitochondria. J. Biol. Chem. 273:18003-18006.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
8 - Bolhuis, A., J. E. Mathers, J. D. Thomas, C. M. Barrett, and C. Robinson. 2001. TatB and TatC form a functional and structural unit of the twin-arginine translocase from Escherichia coli. J. Biol. Chem. 276:20213-20219.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
9 - Buchanan, G., E. de Leeuw, N. R. Stanley, M. Wexler, B. C. Berks, F. Sargent, and T. Palmer. 2002. Functional complexity of the twin-arginine translocase TatC component revealed by site-directed mutagenesis. Mol. Microbiol. 43:1457-1470.[CrossRef][Medline]
10 - Casadaban, M. J., and S. N. Cohen. 1979. Lactose genes fused to exogenous promoters in one step using a Mu-lac bacteriophage: in vivo probe for transcriptional control sequences. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 76:4530-4533.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
11 - Cline, K., and H. Mori. 2001. Thylakoid
pH-dependent precursor proteins bind to a cpTatC-Hcf106 complex before Tha4-dependent transport. J. Cell Biol. 154:719-729.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
12 - Daugherty, P. S., G. Chen, B. L. Iverson, and G. Georgiou. 2000. Quantitative analysis of the effect of the mutation frequency on the affinity maturation of single chain Fv antibodies. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97:2029-2034.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
13 - De Leeuw, E., I. Porcelli, F. Sargent, T. Palmer, and B. C. Berks. 2001. Membrane interactions and self-association of the TatA and TatB components of the twin-arginine translocation pathway. FEBS Lett. 506:143-148.[CrossRef][Medline]
14 - De Lisa, M. P., P. Samuelson, T. Palmer, and G. Georgiou. 2002. Genetic analysis of the twin arginine translocator secretion pathway in bacteria. J. Biol. Chem. 277:29825-29831.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
15 - Hicks, M. G., E. de Leeuw, I. Porcelli, G. Buchanan, B. C. Berks, and T. Palmer. 2003. The Escherichia coli twin-arginine translocase: conserved residues of TatA and TatB family components involved in protein transport. FEBS Lett. 539:61-67.[CrossRef][Medline]
16 - Ize, B., F. Gérard, M. Zhang, A. Chanal, R. Volhoux, T. Palmer, A. Filloux, and L.-F. Wu. 2002. In vivo dissection of the Tat translocation pathway in Escherichia coli. J. Mol. Biol. 317:327-335.[CrossRef][Medline]
17 - Ize, B., F. Gérard, and L.-F. Wu. 2002. In vivo assessment of the Tat signal peptide specificity in Escherichia coli. Arch. Microbiol. 178:548-553.[CrossRef][Medline]
18 - Ize, B., N. R. Stanley, G. Buchanan, and T. Palmer. 2003. Role of the Escherichia coli Tat pathway in outer membrane integrity. Mol. Microbiol. 48:1183-1193.[CrossRef][Medline]
19 - Jack, R. L., F. Sargent, B. C. Berks, G. Sawers, and T. Palmer. 2001. Constitutive expression of Escherichia coli tat genes indicates an important role for the twin-arginine translocase during aerobic and anaerobic growth. J. Bacteriol. 183:1801-1804.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
20 - Jack, R. L., G. Buchanan, A. Dubini, K. Hatzixanthis, T. Palmer, and F. Sargent. 2004. Coordinating assembly and export of complex bacterial proteins. EMBO J. 23:3962-3972.[CrossRef][Medline]
21 - Lee, P. A., G. Buchanan, N. R. Stanley, B. C. Berks, and T. Palmer. 2002. Truncation analysis of TatA and TatB defines the minimal functional units required for protein translocation. J. Bacteriol. 184:5871-5879.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
22 - Mori, J., and K. Cline. 2002. A twin arginine signal peptide and the pH gradient trigger reversible assembly of the thylakoid
pH/Tat translocase. J. Cell Biol. 157:205-210.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
23 - Porcelli, I., E. de Leeuw, R. Wallis, E. van den Brink-van der Laan, B. de Kruijff, B. A. Wallace, T. Palmer, and B. C. Berks. 2002. Characterisation and membrane assembly of the TatA component of the Escherichia coli twin-arginine protein transport system. Biochemistry 41:13690-13697.[CrossRef][Medline]
24 - Russell, D. W., and J. Sambrook (ed.). 2001. Molecular cloning: a laboratory manual, 3rd ed. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.
25 - Santini, C.-L., A. Bernadac, M. Zhang, A. Chanal, B. Ize, C. Blanco, and L.-F. Wu. 2001. Translocation of jellyfish green fluorescent protein via the TAT system of Escherichia coli and change of its periplasmic localization in response to osmotic up-shock. J. Biol. Chem. 276:8159-8164.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
26 - Sargent, F., E. Bogsch, N. R. Stanley, M. Wexler, C. Robinson, B. C. Berks, and T. Palmer. 1998. Overlapping functions of components of a bacterial Sec-independent protein export pathway. EMBO J. 17:3640-3650.[CrossRef][Medline]
27 - Sargent, F., N. R. Stanley, B. C. Berks, and T. Palmer. 1999. Sec-independent protein translocation in Escherichia coli: a distinct and pivotal role for the TatB protein. J. Biol. Chem. 274:36073-36083.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
28 - Sargent, F., U. Gohlke, E. de Leeuw, N. R. Stanley, T. Palmer, H. R. Saibil, and B. C. Berks. 2001. Purified components of the Escherichia coli Tat protein transport system form a double-layered ring structure. Eur. J. Biochem. 268:3361-3367.[Medline]
29 - Silvestro, A., J. Pommier, and G. Giordano. 1988. The inducible trimethylamine-N-oxide reductase of Escherichia coli K12: biochemical and immunological studies. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 954:1-13.[CrossRef][Medline]
30 - Stanley, N. R., T. Palmer, and B. C. Berks. 2000. The twin arginine consensus motif of Tat signal peptides is involved in Sec-independent protein targeting in Escherichia coli. J. Biol. Chem. 257:11591-11596.
31 - Stanley, N. R., F. Sargent, G. Buchanan, J. Shi, V. Stewart, T. Palmer, and B. C. Berks. 2002. Behaviour of topological marker proteins targeted to the Tat protein transport pathway. Mol. Microbiol. 43:1005-1021.[CrossRef][Medline]
32 - Thomas, J. D., R. A. Daniel, J. Errington, and C. Robinson. 2001. Export of active green fluorescent protein to the periplasm by the twin-arginine translocase (Tat) pathway in Escherichia coli. Mol. Microbiol. 39:47-53.[CrossRef][Medline]
33 - Thompson, J. D., D. G. Higgins, and T. J. Gibson. 1994. CLUSTAL W: improving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, positions-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic Acids Res. 22:4673-4680.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
34 - Weiner, J. H., P. T. Bilous, G. M. Shaw, S. P. Lubitz, L. Frost, G. H. Thomas, J. A. Cole, and R. J. Turner. 1998. A novel and ubiquitous system for membrane targeting and secretion of cofactor-containing proteins. Cell 93:93-101.[CrossRef][Medline]
Journal of Bacteriology, April 2005, p. 2920-2925, Vol. 187, No. 8
0021-9193/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JB.187.8.2920-2925.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Berthelmann, F., Mehner, D., Richter, S., Lindenstrauss, U., Lunsdorf, H., Hause, G., Bruser, T.
(2008). Recombinant Expression of tatABC and tatAC Results in the Formation of Interacting Cytoplasmic TatA Tubes in Escherichia coli. J. Biol. Chem.
283: 25281-25289
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Greene, N. P., Porcelli, I., Buchanan, G., Hicks, M. G., Schermann, S. M., Palmer, T., Berks, B. C.
(2007). Cysteine Scanning Mutagenesis and Disulfide Mapping Studies of the TatA Component of the Bacterial Twin Arginine Translocase. J. Biol. Chem.
282: 23937-23945
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Lee, P. A., Orriss, G. L., Buchanan, G., Greene, N. P., Bond, P. J., Punginelli, C., Jack, R. L., Sansom, M. S. P., Berks, B. C., Palmer, T.
(2006). Cysteine-scanning Mutagenesis and Disulfide Mapping Studies of the Conserved Domain of the Twin-arginine Translocase TatB Component. J. Biol. Chem.
281: 34072-34085
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
-
Bronstein, P. A., Marrichi, M., Cartinhour, S., Schneider, D. J., DeLisa, M. P.
(2005). Identification of a Twin-Arginine Translocation System in Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 and Its Contribution to Pathogenicity and Fitness. J. Bacteriol.
187: 8450-8461
[Abstract]
[Full Text]