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Journal of Bacteriology, September 2006, p. 6703-6708, Vol. 188, No. 18
0021-9193/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JB.00799-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology and Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Okayama University, Tsushima-Naka 3-1-1, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
Received 5 June 2006/ Accepted 7 July 2006
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28 (FliA) essential for class 3 expression (26). Class 3 contains operons encoding proteins involved in filament assembly and flagellar function. The
28 activity is negatively controlled by an anti-
28 factor, FlgM (19, 27). FlgM is excreted out of the cell through the flagellum-specific type III export apparatus upon completion of the hook-basal body structure, which achieves a tight coupling of the class 3 expression to the flagellar assembly process (8, 13).
Class 2 operons are transcribed by
70-RNA polymerase in the presence of FlhD and FlhC, which assemble into an FlhD2C2 heterotetramer and bind to the DNA region upstream of the class 2 promoter (10, 21, 22). The FlhD2C2-binding site shows an imperfect symmetry comprising two 17- to 18-bp inverted repeats, called the FlhD2C2 box, separated by a 10- to 11-bp spacer (5, 10, 15, 22). In the FlhD2C2 complex, the FlhC subunit bears a DNA-binding activity, while the FlhD subunit strengthens its DNA-binding specificity and stabilizes the protein-DNA complex (4).
Several global regulators are known to affect class 2 expression. They include CsrA of E. coli and ClpXP and DnaK of S. enterica. The RNA-binding protein CsrA and the DnaK chaperone positively regulate class 2 expression through enhancing translation of flhDC mRNA (34) and through converting the native FlhD2C2 heterotetramer into a functional form (32), respectively. On the other hand, the ATP-dependent protease ClpXP negatively regulates class 2 expression through degradation of FlhD2C2 (33). In addition to these factors, two genes within the flagellar regulon, fliT and fliZ, have been shown to regulate class 2 transcription in S. enterica (17). Disruption of the fliT or fliZ gene increases or decreases, respectively, class 2 transcription without affecting class 1 transcription, suggesting that FliT and FliZ are negative and positive regulators, respectively, specific for class 2 operons. The fliT and fliZ genes belong to the fliDST and fliAZ operons, respectively, both of which are transcribed from both class 2 and class 3 promoters (9, 15, 38).
FliT is known also to be an export chaperone for the filament capping protein FliD (3, 7). Therefore, FliT is a dual-function protein involved in the control of protein export and gene expression. The chaperone function of FliT has been characterized at a molecular level, and FliT is believed to bind FliD to prevent its oligomerization prior to its export through the flagellum-specific type III export pathway (3, 7). However, molecular mechanisms underlying FliT-mediated transcriptional regulation of the class 2 operons remained unknown. This work was carried out to address this issue.
Overproduction and purification of FlhD/FlhC complex and His-FliT protein. Plasmid pKK1211 carries the entire flhDC operon from S. enterica serovar Typhimurium strain KK1004 (Table 1). Using this plasmid as a template, the flhC gene was PCR amplified with primers PTHHC1 and PTHHC2 (Table 2). The amplified product was digested with NdeI and BamHI and inserted into the corresponding site of pET19b to obtain pTH-hC. Similarly, the flhD gene was PCR amplified with primers PTHHCHD1 and PTHHD2 (Table 2). The amplified product was digested with BamHI and inserted into the corresponding site of pTH-hC. A plasmid carrying the flhD gene in the correct orientation was selected to obtain pTH-hCD. In this plasmid, the flhC and flhD genes are both transcribed from the T7 promoter, FlhC being synthesized in a His10-tagged form (His-FlhC) while FlhD was synthesized in its native form. Strain HMS174(DE3), harboring both pLysS and pTH-hCD, was grown at 30°C with shaking in 100 ml of LB containing 100 µg of ampicillin and 10 µg of chloramphenicol/ml. When the cell growth reached an optical density at 600 nm (OD600) of 0.4, isopropyl-ß-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG) was added to a final concentration of 1 mM. After further cultivation for 5 h, cells were harvested by centrifugation and resuspended in 1 ml of NA buffer (50 mM NaH2PO4, 300 mM NaCl, 10 mM imidazole, pH 8.0). After disruption of cells by sonication, the sample was centrifuged and the resulting supernatant was mixed with 50 µl of Ni+-nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) agarose (QIAGEN, Hilden, Germany). After the mixture was shaken gently at 4°C for 30 min, the Ni+-NTA agarose was collected by centrifugation, washed five times with 1 ml of NB buffer (50 mM NaH2PO4, 300 mM NaCl, 20 mM imidazole, pH 8.0), and resuspended in 50 µl of NC buffer (50 mM NaH2PO4, 300 mM NaCl, 250 mM imidazole, pH 8.0). After centrifugation, the supernatant fractions were analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), and those containing His-FlhC (25 kDa) were pooled. Through this purification procedure, FlhD (13 kDa) was copurified with His-FlhC (data not shown), since these proteins exist as an FlhD2/His-FlhC2 complex (22). The pooled fractions were dialyzed twice against 1,000 ml of phosphate-buffered saline (PBS: 137 mM NaCl, 2.7 mM KCl, 4.3 mM Na2HPO4 · 7H2O, 1.4 mM KH2PO4, pH 7.5) and used in this study.
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TABLE 1. Strains and plasmids used in the present study
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TABLE 2. Primers used in the present studya
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FliT inhibits FlhD2C2-dependent transcription in vitro.
The His-FliT protein and FlhD2/His-FlhC2 complex purified above were used for in vitro analysis of
70-dependent transcription from the class 2 promoter. For this analysis, plasmid pSIIA100 (Table 1) carrying the fliAZ promoter was used as a template. In this plasmid, first 31 nucleotides of the fliAZ mRNA fused to a 310-nucleotide RNA derived from the vector sequence are expressed from the fliAZ promoter, and the transcription terminates at the rrnB terminator (9). Therefore, if transcription occurred from the class 2 promoter, a 341-nucleotide RNA should be produced from this plasmid. In vitro transcription experiments were performed as described previously (35) with a reaction mixture (70 µl) containing 11.4 nM template DNA, 1 U of E. coli RNA polymerase holoenzyme (Epicenter, Madison, WI), 40 mM Tris-HCl, 150 mM KCl, 10 mM MgCl2, 1 mM dithiothreitol, 50 U of RNase inhibitor (Takara), 57 nM FlhD2/His-FlhC2, and various concentrations (0 to 1,140 nM) of His-FliT. After preincubation for 30 min at 37°C, the transcription reaction was initiated by addition of 4 nucleotides containing [
-32P]UTP (Amersham Biosciences, NJ) at a final concentration of 0.2 mM. After incubation for 20 min at 37°C, the reaction was terminated by addition of 116 µl of a stop solution (0.6 M sodium acetate [pH 5.5], 20 mM EDTA, 200 µg of tRNA/ml). RNAs were precipitated by ethanol and separated on 6% polyacrylamide gel containing 6 M urea. The labeled transcripts were detected by autoradiography. In the absence of FlhD2/His-FlhC2, only RNA I transcribed from the vector sequence was produced (Fig. 1, lane 1). In contrast, in the presence of FlhD2/His-FlhC2, both RNA I and the class 2 transcript were produced (Fig. 1, lane 2). When FliT was added to the transcription reaction mixture, the amount of class 2 transcript decreased in an FliT concentration-dependent manner, whereas that of RNA I was not affected (Fig. 1, lanes 3 and 4). This result indicates that FliT specifically inhibits transcription from the class 2 promoter in vitro, which is consistent with our previous result obtained from in vivo transcription analysis (17).
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FIG. 1. Effect of FliT on FlhD2C2-dependent transcription in vitro. Plasmid pSIIA100 carrying the fliAZ promoter was transcribed in vitro with E. coli RNA polymerase holoenzyme with or without 57 nM FlhD2/His-FlhC2 in the presence of [ -32P]UTP. His-FliT was added to the reaction mixture at the final concentration shown above each lane. Synthesized RNAs were separated on a 6% polyacrylamide gel containing 6 M urea and detected by autoradiography. nt, nucleotides.
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-32P]ATP (Amersham Biosciences) by T4 polynucleotide kinase (Toyobo) and used as a probe. The binding reaction mixture (20 µl) contained 0.05 nM labeled probe DNA, 20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0), 100 mM NaCl, 0.1 mM EDTA, 1 mM dithiothreitol, 1 mM MgCl2, 0.1 mg/ml bovine serum albumin, 5% glycerol, and various concentrations of FlhD2/His-FlhC2 (0 to 125 nM) and His-FliT (0 to 2,500 nM). The reaction mixture was incubated for 30 min at 37°C and subjected to electrophoresis at 4°C on a native 5% polyacrylamide gel in 0.5x TBE buffer (46 mM Tris base, 46 mM boric acid, 1 mM EDTA). Labeled DNAs were detected by autoradiography. As reported previously (22), the addition of FlhD2/His-FlhC2 to the binding reaction mixture gave the shifted band in an FlhD2/His-FlhC2 concentration-dependent manner (Fig. 2, lanes 2 to 4). When 250 nM His-FliT was added together with 125 nM FlhD2/His-FlhC2, the amount of the shifted band decreased and a free probe band appeared (Fig. 2, lane 5). The shifted band disappeared when His-FliT was added at a 20-fold molar excess over FlhD2/His-FlhC2 (Fig. 2, lane 6). The addition of His-FliT alone gave no shifted band even at a 50,000-fold molar excess over the probe DNA (Fig. 2, lane 7), suggesting that FliT per se has no DNA-binding activity. These results indicate that FliT inhibits binding of FlhD2C2 to DNA.
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FIG. 2. Effect of FliT on binding of FlhD2C2 to the class 2 promoter. A 433-bp DNA fragment containing the FlhD2C2 box for the fliDST promoter was 5'-end labeled with 32P. Each reaction mixture contained 0.05 nM labeled DNA. After incubation with FlhD2/His-FlhC2 and/or FliT at the final concentrations indicated above the lanes, the DNA-protein mixtures were separated on a native 5% polyacrylamide gel and labeled DNA was detected by autoradiography. Positions of free and bound DNAs are indicated by arrows to the left.
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Strain JM109 harboring pTrc99A-hDC was grown at 30°C with shaking in 100 ml of LB containing 100 µg of ampicillin/ml. When the cell growth reached an OD600 of 0.4, IPTG was added to a final concentration of 1 mM. After further cultivation for 6 h, cells were harvested by centrifugation and resuspended in 1 ml of NA buffer containing 1 mg of lysozyme (Seikagaku Kogyo, Tokyo, Japan). After incubation on ice for 30 min, the cells were disrupted by sonication. Production of FlhD and FlhC in the cell was confirmed by Western blotting with anti-FlhD and anti-FlhC rabbit polyclonal antibodies (Fig. 3A). The sonicated sample was centrifuged, and 500 µl of the resulting supernatant was mixed with 50 µl of Ni+-NTA agarose in the presence of 17 µg of His-FliT. After the mixture was shaken gently at 4°C for 2 h, the Ni+-NTA agarose was collected by centrifugation, washed three times with 1 ml of NB buffer, and resuspended in 50 µl of NC buffer. After centrifugation, proteins in the supernatant were separated by SDS-PAGE and detected by Coomassie brilliant blue staining or Western blotting with anti-FlhD or anti-FlhC antibody. As shown in Fig. 3B, FlhD and FlhC were specifically recovered from the Ni+-NTA agarose containing His-FliT. This indicates that FliT interacts with either FlhD or FlhC in FlhD2C2 complex or with both of them.
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FIG. 3. Pull-down and far-Western blotting analyses of the interaction between FliT and FlhD2C2. (A) Detection of FlhD and FlhC proteins in the cell lysate used in the pull-down assay. The FlhD and FlhC proteins were detected by Western blotting with anti-FlhD ( -FlhD) and anti-FlhC ( -FlhC) antibodies, respectively. The following strains were used: lanes 1 and 3, JM109 harboring pTrc99A; lanes 2 and 4, JM109 harboring pTrc99A-hDC. Positions of FlhD and FlhC are indicated by arrows. Positions of molecular mass markers are shown to the left. (B) Interaction between His-FliT and FlhD2C2. Cell lysates described above were treated with Ni+-NTA agarose containing His-FliT (lanes 2, 3, 5, and 7 to 9) or no protein (lanes 1, 4, and 6). Proteins eluted with 250 mM imidazole were separated by SDS-PAGE and detected by Coomassie brilliant blue staining (lanes 1 to 3) or Western blotting with antibodies against FlhD (lanes 4 and 5), FlhC (lanes 6 and 7), and FliT (lane 8). Several nonspecific bands were seen in lanes 1 and 2. For far-Western blotting analysis, the same blotted membrane was treated with His-FliT, which was then detected with anti-FliT antibody (lane 9). The following cell lysate were subjected to pull-down assay: lanes 1, 2, and 4 to 9, JM109 harboring pTrc99A-hDC; lane 3, no cell lysate.
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FliT acts as an anti-FlhD2C2 factor. On the basis of the results obtained above, we conclude that FliT binds to FlhD2C2 through interaction with the FlhC subunit and inhibits its binding to the class 2 promoter, resulting in decreased expression of the class 2 operons. Since both FlhD and FlhC were copurified with His-FliT in the pull-down assay (Fig. 3B), FliT binding to the FlhC subunit is unlikely to dissociate the FlhD2C2 complex into individual subunits. Taken together, we propose that FliT is an anti-FlhD2C2 factor, which acts as an anti-activator factor specific for the flagellar master regulator (Fig. 4). However, because FliT can bind to FlhC that does not form FlhD2C2 complex (Fig. 3B, lane 9), we cannot exclude a possibility that FliT binds to FlhC monomer or dimer to inhibit formation of the FlhC2 or FlhD2C2 complex.
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FIG. 4. Model for molecular mechanism of FliT-mediated negative regulation of the flagellar class 2 operons. FliT acts as an anti-FlhD2C2 factor, which binds to FlhD2C2 through interaction with the FlhC subunit and inhibits its binding to class 2 promoters. FliD acts as an anti-anti-FlhD2C2 factor, which binds to FliT to prevent its interaction with FlhD2C2. After hook-basal body completion, FliD is excreted outside the cell through the hook-basal body complex with the aid of the flagellum-specific type III export apparatus. The horizontal line and broken arrow indicate DNA and mRNA, respectively. Abbreviations used: C, FlhC; D, FlhD; iD, FliD; T, FliT; RPase, 70-RNA polymerase holoenzyme; 10, Pribnow box; HBB, hook-basal body.
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As an export chaperone, FliT was shown to possess two functional domains: one residing in the N-terminal region is required for its homodimerization, and the other residing in the C-terminal region forms amphipathic helices required for binding to FliD (3). However, because FlhC shows no apparent sequence similarity to FliD (data not shown), it is unclear whether FliT utilizes the same structural motif for recognition of FlhC and FliD. It was shown that FliT exists as a homodimer and binds to FliD at a 2:1 stoichiometry of FliT to FliD (3). At present, we have no data on the binding stoichiometry of FliT and FlhC, because our attempts to detect FliT-FlhC or FliT-FlhD2C2 complex by gel filtration chromatography or by chemical cross-linking analysis have not been successful (our unpublished result).
Connection between transcriptional regulation and protein export. Recently, several substrate-specific chaperones for type III export systems have been shown not only to facilitate the export of their substrate proteins but also to regulate gene expression. They include SicA of S. enterica (6) and Spa15 of Shigella flexneri (28). This led to a hypothesis that the interaction between the type III chaperones and their substrates may play a role in coordinating cellular activities of protein export and gene expression (23). In the flagellum-specific type III export system, FlgN, an export chaperone for hook-filament junction proteins FlgK and FlgL (3, 7), was shown to regulate positively the translation of the class 3-specific anti-sigma factor gene flgM (1, 12). Because the flgN and flgKL genes are transcribed from both class 2 and class 3 promoters, their gene products are synthesized in the cytosol both before and after completion of hook-basal body assembly (13, 15). However, FlgK and FlgL are exported efficiently only after completion of hook-basal body assembly (24). On the basis of these facts, FlgK and FlgL were postulated to bind to FlgN within the cytosol during assembly of the hook-basal body structure, acting as anti-FlgN factors that inhibit flgM translation (1). This mechanism may play a role in the fine-tuning of class 3 expression in response to the stage of flagellar assembly.
By analogy with this, we would like to propose that the interplay among FlhD2C2, FliT, and FliD may play a role in the fine-tuning of class 2 expression in response to the stage of flagellar assembly (Fig. 4). Like FlgK and FlgL, FliD is exported outside the cell only after completion of hook-basal body assembly (24), though it is synthesized both before and after its completion (15). Therefore, during assembly of the hook-basal body structure, FliD may be accumulated within the cytosol and bind to FliT. In this condition, FlhD2C2 may be freed from FliT to activate class 2 transcription, leading to efficient expression of the component proteins of hook-basal body structure. This may enhance assembly of the hook-basal body complex. Once the hook-basal body is completed, FliD is exported outside the cell and FliT now freed from FliD binds to FlhD2C2 to inhibit the expression of class 2 operons. This results in lowered production of the hook-basal body components, which may contribute to saving biosynthetic energy in the bacterial cell. If this scenario were the case, FliD should act as an anti-anti-FlhD2C2 factor.
Present address: Department of Molecular Biotechnology, Graduate School of Advanced Sciences of Matter, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8530, Japan. ![]()
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subunit of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase is required for transcriptional activation of the flagellar level II operons by the FlhD/FlhC complex. J. Bacteriol. 177:5186-5188.
F. Mol. Microbiol. 6:3149-3157.[Medline]This article has been cited by other articles:
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