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Journal of Bacteriology, January 2006, p. 335-338, Vol. 188, No. 1
0021-9193/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JB.188.1.335-338.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
SecA Dimer Cross-Linked at Its Subunit Interface Is Functional for Protein Translocation
Lucia B. Jilaveanu and
Donald Oliver*
Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut 06459
Received 7 September 2005/
Accepted 6 October 2005

ABSTRACT
SecA facilitates protein transport across the eubacterial plasma
membrane by its association with cargo proteins and the SecYEG
translocon, followed by ATP-driven conformational changes that
promote protein translocation in a stepwise manner. Whether
SecA functions as a monomer or a dimer during this process has
been the subject of considerable controversy. Here we utilize
cysteine-directed mutagenesis along with the crystal structure
of the SecA dimer to create a cross-linked dimer at its subunit
interface, which was normally active for in vitro protein translocation.

TEXT
The Sec-dependent pathway is the most commonly employed system
of protein transport across the eubacterial plasma membrane.
It consists of the SecA protein, an ATP-driven motor that associates
with both its protein cargo and the SecYEG translocon, the presumed
protein-conducting channel (
30). ATP-driven conformational cycles
of SecA, which in part correspond to SecA membrane insertion
and retraction cycles at SecYEG, drive the translocation of
proteins in a stepwise fashion (
10,
29). There is considerable
interest in understanding the mechanistic features of the SecA
nanomotor, particularly in light of recent crystal structures
for the SecA protein and a SecYEG homolog from
Methanococcus jannaschii (
12,
21,
25,
28). However, one major obstacle toward
this end arises from uncertainty about the oligomeric state
of SecA in its translocationally active state.
SecA was originally described as a stable homodimer, but it has a monomer-dimer equilibrium in solution in the micromolar range that is sensitive to both temperature and salt concentration (1, 31). Interaction of SecA with its various ligands, such as anionic phospholipids, ATP, signal peptides, and the SecYEG protein, has been shown to substantially affect this equilibrium, with different results being reported by different investigators (3, 4, 13, 20). Furthermore, there have been reports of both the SecA monomer and dimer associated with an artificially stabilized SecYEG dimer in detergent solutions (9, 27).
It was originally suggested that SecA functions as a dimer based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer experiments probing the stability of differentially labeled SecA heterodimers as well as the poor activity of SecA heterodimers containing an 8-azido-ATP-inactivated subunit (8). However, another study suggested that SecA functions as a monomer based on the inability to detect SecYEG-bound SecA dimers by cross-linking along with the residual translocation activity of a monomer-biased SecA mutant containing six alanine substitutions and lacking the carboxyl-terminal 70 amino acid residues of SecA (20), which are dispensable for SecA function (16). A more recent study by the same group found that a stronger monomer-biased SecA mutant protein lacking both the amino-terminal 11 amino acid residues and carboxyl-terminal 70 amino acid residues (SecA
11/N95) appeared to retain significant in vivo and in vitro protein translocation activity, particularly when assayed utilizing a prlA4 strain or inverted membrane vesicles or proteoliposomes derived from this strain (19). SecA
11/N95 dimers were not detected in this study. By contrast, a recent study from our laboratory found that the monomer-biased SecA
11 mutant protein, while retaining wild-type SecYEG-binding activity, was poorly active for translocation ATPase activity, and it was inactive for in vitro protein translocation (13). This mutant protein was also unable to complement a secA conditional null mutant. Finally, we found that the SecYEG-bound or inserted wild-type SecA dimer could be visualized by cross-linking and that membrane-bound his-tagged SecA could be trapped in vivo into an inactive heterodimer by overproduction of "membrane-stuck" SecA mutant proteins. These findings are inconsistent with membrane-bound SecA acting only as a monomer, and they suggest that SecA functions either solely as a dimer or as part of a monomer-dimer cycle during the protein translocation process.
In order to address the question as to whether the SecA dimer is truly active, we utilized cysteine-directed mutagenesis along with the crystal structure of the Bacillus subtilis SecA dimer, which is highly homologous to Escherichia coli (23, 24), to create a disulfide cross-linked E. coli SecA dimer at its subunit interface. Two different mutant pairs were selected for this purpose: Gly11/Ser661 and Arg637/Gln801 (Fig. 1). We reasoned that since SecA is a conformationally driven nanomotor, we should avoid engineering cysteines into potentially flexible or dynamic regions of the protein that are likely to be important for its mobility function. By contrast, the helical scaffold domain of SecA (amino acid residues 621 to 669 and 727 to 828 for E. coli SecA), which appears to act as a rigid assembly template for the other five domains of SecA and forms much of the interprotomer interface (12), appeared to be a good candidate region to tether the two subunits together. In addition, our recent analysis of the SecA
11 mutant protein suggested that the amino terminus might play a role only in stabilizing the SecA dimer (13), and thus, we chose a residue (Gly11) within this region as well. We decided to make both mutations for each pair on a single copy of the secA gene (i.e., Cys11/Cys661 or Cys637/Cys801) in order to create the potential for a doubly disulfide-cross-linked dimer (see Fig. 1). This strategy avoids purifying each single SecA mutant protein and assembling the appropriate mixed dimer in vitro. We also felt that our method should result in a higher proportion of Cys11-Cys661- or Cys637-Cys801-specific cross-links, since if disulfide bonds formed during protein purification by introduction of oxygen into the sample (see below), then the high SecA protein concentrations employed under these conditions should favor SecA dimer stability along with the desired interprotomer cross-links.
Mutations were made by the QuikChange procedure as described
by the manufacturer (Stratagene), utilizing the SecA-overproducing
plasmid pT7secAC4, lacking any cysteine codons, which encodes
a functional
secA gene (
22), and appropriate oligonucleotides
(Integrated DNA Technologies), and they were verified by DNA
sequence analysis (University of Pennsylvania DNA Sequencing
Facility). Analysis of the growth properties of BL21.19 [
secA13(Am)
supF(Ts)
trp(Am)
zch::Tn
10 recA::
CAT clpA::
KAN] carrying a chromosomal
secA amber allele and a temperature-sensitive amber suppressor
along with pT7secA, pT7secA-Cys11/661, or pT7secA-Cys637/801
at 42°C and 30°C showed that these strains had an efficiency
of plating (defined as the culture titer determined on LB-ampicillin
plates [
18] incubated at 42°C divided by that determined
at 30°C and performed as described previously [
13]) of 1.2,
1.75, and 0.85, respectively, indicating that the mutant pairs
did not significantly perturb SecA in vivo function. However,
since the
E. coli cytoplasm and
cis side of the inner membrane
constitute a reducing environment, disulfide bonds should not
be generally present in intracellular SecA (
2).
SecA proteins were overproduced and purified as described previously (7) with the exception that dithiothreitol was left out of the final chromatography step. In the absence of a reductant, both the SecA-Cys11/661 and SecA-Cys637/801 proteins existed almost entirely as covalent dimers, since species in the
180- to 220-kDa range were detected by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) (Fig. 2). Even the slowest-migrating species present in the two protein preparations (Fig. 2, lane 2) was clearly a dimer rather than a trimer or tetramer, since it migrated well below the 251-kDa protein standard (HiMark molecular weight markers; Invitrogen) that was used to estimate its molecular weight (data not shown). The multiple dimer species resolved into the SecA monomer when 1 mM dithiothreitol was included in the buffer. From densitometry of the gel (UN-SCAN-IT; Silk Software), we estimated that the level of SecA monomer within our purified protein preparations was <0.1% and <4% for SecA-Cys11/661 and SecA-Cys637/801, respectively (data not shown). The presence of multiple electrophoretic species for each cross-linked mutant protein is likely to be due to the presence of both single and double disulfide bonds between SecA protomers as well as the presence of some dimers comprised of homologous disulfide bonds (e.g., between Cys801-Cys801). It has been previously noted that SecA-N95-Cys801 can form a dimer after diamide treatment even though both Cys801 residues are not near each other in the SecA dimer crystal structure (12, 19).
In order to assess the activity of the two SecA mutant proteins,
ATPase and in vitro protein translocation assays were performed.
The two proteins had very different activity profiles in these
assays. Cross-linked SecA-Cys11/661 was severely defective for
both its translocation ATPase activity (i.e., SecYEG and preprotein-stimulated
[
15]) (Fig.
3) and in vitro protein translocation activity (Fig.
4), and these defects were readily reversed by inclusion of
1 mM dithiothreitol in the buffer. By contrast, cross-linked
SecA-Cys637/801 was proficient in both activities; its translocation
ATPase activity was 73% of that of wild-type SecA and its in
vitro protein translocation activity was nearly equivalent to
that of the wild-type protein. Curiously both cross-linked proteins
displayed lower membrane ATPase activity (i.e., SecYEG stimulated
[
15]), which was reversed by inclusion of 1 mM dithiothreitol
in the buffer, suggestive of suboptimal activation of SecA ATPase
activity upon SecYEG binding by the cross-linked dimer. Nonreducing
SDS-PAGE analysis of the SecA-Cys637/801 protein before and
after incubation in the in vitro protein translocation system
indicated that the level of the SecA-Cys637/801 monomer did
not increase significantly during this time (i.e., from <4%
monomer to <6% monomer; data not shown). The stability of
the cross-linked SecA dimer in the in vitro protein translocation
system is consistent with the observed inactivity of SecA-Cys11/661
in the absence of dithiothreitol as well as the previously observed
absence of significant reducing activity in
E. coli inverted
membrane vesicles (
26). Furthermore, we note that NADH was omitted
from our in vitro translocation assays in order to further minimize
potential reducing activity. The observed robust in vitro protein
translocation activity of SecA-Cys637/801 could not arise solely
from the small level of monomer present (estimated at <6%),
since our assay system was linearly responsive to the SecA concentration
and the observed specific activities of SecA-Cys637/801 and
wild-type SecA were nearly comparable (see SecA activity titration
in Fig.
4B). By contrast, if the monomer was the only active
species present, then the specific activity of SecA-Cys637/801
would have been

17-fold lower than that of wild-type SecA. However,
we cannot exclude the possibility that the small amount of potential
monomer in our preparation may contribute to a particular non-rate-limiting
step of the SecA-dependent protein translocation cycle. We conclude
that a SecA dimer cross-linked at its subunit interface is sufficient
to catalyze efficient in vitro protein translocation, and it
also possesses robust translocation ATPase activity. We do note,
however, that the particular disulfide bonds contained within
SecA-Cys637/801 appeared to interfere somewhat with its conformational
activity cycle as judged by the modest reduction in translocation
ATPase and in vitro protein translocation activities. By contrast,
the disulfide bonds contained within SecA-Cys11/661 were incompatible
with the SecA conformational activity cycle as assessed by these
experiments.
Taken with our recently published work showing the relative
inactivity of a SecA monomer-biased mutant (
13), our combined
studies strongly argue that SecA can function solely as a dimer.
This conclusion is consistent with the early biochemical study
of Driessen (
8) as well as the genetic observation from Kumamoto's
group that duplication of the
secA gene that resulted in a head-to-tail
covalent dimer was functional in vivo (
17). While we were writing
up our work, a study similar to ours was published (
6). While
the approach and conclusion of that study were similar to ours,
there are important differences between the two studies. de
Keyzer et al. utilized the naturally occurring carboxyl-terminal
cysteine residues of SecA to cross-link the enzyme. Thus, as
pointed out by these authors, their study had the limitation
that suboptimal SecB-independent OmpA translocation was analyzed,
since these cysteine residues are important for SecB binding
by SecA (
11). More importantly, their study did not completely
resolve the issue of whether SecA truly functioned as a dimer
or as a tethered monomer, since the highly mobile, extreme carboxyl-terminal
region (
5,
12) was used for cross-linking. By contrast, our
study utilized the physiological subunit interface and the rigid
helical scaffold domain within the core of SecA for cross-linking,
and thus, it is far less likely that SecA could function as
a tethered monomer in the latter case. Additional studies are
now feasible utilizing an engineered SecA-Cys637/801 dimer to
address the question of whether each protomer functions in a
more independent fashion or by a subunit switching mechanism
whereby each protomer obligately alternates its conformational
cycle with its partner in order to produce the stepwise pattern
of protein translocation that has been reported previously (
29).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Christopher R. Zito for performing the in vitro protein
translocation reactions.
This work was supported by grant GM42033 from NIGMS.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 06459. Phone: (860) 685-3556. Fax: (860) 685-2141. E-mail:
doliver{at}wesleyan.edu.


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Journal of Bacteriology, January 2006, p. 335-338, Vol. 188, No. 1
0021-9193/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JB.188.1.335-338.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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