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Journal of Bacteriology, October 2006, p. 7022-7025, Vol. 188, No. 19
0021-9193/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JB.00687-06
Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
Received 15 May 2006/ Accepted 2 July 2006
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S), is regulated at multiple levels, including transcriptional regulation, translation by multiple small RNAs, and protein stability (for reviews, see references 8 and 12). One of the major regulators of RpoS turnover is RssB (SprE), a response regulator. RssB is necessary for degradation of RpoS, which usually occurs rapidly during exponential growth and slows down during stationary phase or stress responses (for a review, see reference 8). RssB can be phosphorylated by acetyl phosphate in vitro (2). The phosphorylated form of RssB binds RpoS with high affinity and presents it to the ATP-dependent ClpXP protease for degradation in vitro (23). The level of RssB is low and may be limiting for proteolysis under some conditions (18, 19). The specific sensor kinase(s) or phosphatase(s) that can phosphorylate or dephosphorylate RssB has not been identified. H-NS is an abundant nucleoid-associated protein. The major role of H-NS is as a global transcriptional repressor for a large number of genes (for a review, see reference 5). Surprisingly, H-NS affects both RpoS mRNA translation and RpoS turnover in logarithmic growth; it was previously reported that there is a 10-fold increase in the RpoS synthesis rate, as well as a 10-fold increase in RpoS stability, in hns mutants (1, 22). The work described here was undertaken to ask whether these two effects are linked, for instance, by increased synthesis leading to inefficient degradation by swamping (titrating) the degradation machinery. We found that hns mutants have a strong effect on RpoS turnover, independent of any effect on RpoS synthesis, contrary to the titration model. The effect of hns mutants on RpoS degradation is an effect on RssB activity, leading to RpoS stabilization.
RpoS stability is increased dramatically in an hns mutant. To confirm the involvement of H-NS in RssB-mediated RpoS degradation, isogenic strains carrying two different translational fusions of RpoS-LacZ were used. One fusion is a "long fusion," RpoS750::LacZ, carrying 250 amino acids of RpoS, including the RssB interaction site at amino acid lysine-173; this fusion protein is subject to RssB-dependent ClpXP degradation (24). The other fusion, a "short fusion," RpoS477::LacZ, carries the same upstream region but only 159 amino acids of RpoS; this fusion protein is stable (E. Massé, unpublished data). Cells were grown in LB medium at 37°C, and samples were taken. There was a 12-fold increase in ß-galactosidase activity with the long fusion in an hns mutant (Table 1). However, the activity of ß-galactosidase with the short fusion was increased only twofold in the hns cells (Table 1). This result suggests that there was a strong (sixfold) increase in stability and a modest (twofold) increase in synthesis. Consistent with a twofold increase in RpoS synthesis in the hns mutant, the same twofold increase was seen in the long RpoS750::lacZ fusion in an rssB hns double mutant compared to an rssB mutant (Table 1).
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TABLE 1. Accumulation of RpoS-lacZ in hns mutants
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FIG. 1. RpoS is stabilized specifically in an hns mutant. Cells were grown in LB broth at 37°C to an optical density at 600 nm of 0.3 to 0.5; a sample was removed, and 100 µg/ml spectinomycin was added to the remaining culture. Samples were removed at different times, precipitated with 5% trichloroacetic acid in cold conditions, and analyzed by Western blotting. For quantitation, estimates were extrapolated from a series of sample dilutions that showed a linear response on film after scanning with an Eagle Eye II scanner (24), using 3 min as zero time on the graphs (there was a modest increase in signal between the addition of spectinomycin and 3 min). (A) The only source of RpoS is from the uninduced pBAD plasmid, and the levels of RpoS are comparable to those from the chromosome. Symbols: , wild-type strain YN559 (rpoS::tet/pBAD-RpoS); , hns strain YN561 (rpoS::tet hns::kan/pBAD-RpoS). (B and C) Symbols: , wild-type strain YN783/pBAD-GFP-ssrA; , hns strain YN788 (hns/pBAD-GFP-ssrA); , rssB strain YN791 (rssB/pBAD-GFP-ssrA); , hns clpP strain YN792 (hns clpP/pBAD-GFP-ssrA). WT, wild type.
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Using a plasmid with rssB under pBAD control, we measured RpoS and RpoS750::LacZ expression when RssB was overproduced at a high level in the hns mutant strain. Overnight cultures of hns mutant strains carrying either a vector or the pBAD24-RssB plasmid were diluted into LB media with or without arabinose at 37°C. Samples were taken at mid-exponential phase, amounts of RpoS were measured by Western blotting, and RpoS750::LacZ expression was determined by a ß-galactosidase assay. The amounts of both RpoS and RpoS750::LacZ were dramatically (10-fold) reduced when RssB was induced in the hns mutant (Fig. 2, lane 4). This result, coupled with the rapid degradation of GFP-SsrA in an hns mutant, rules out an effect of hns mutants on ClpXP activity and suggests that RssB activity was inhibited but not abolished in the hns mutant; the inhibition could be overcome by excess RssB.
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FIG. 2. Suppression of hns by RssB overproduction. (A) Strains containing an RpoS::LacZ reporter that measures transcription, translation, and protein degradation were grown in LB medium at 37°C with and without 0.02% arabinose (ara); samples were taken at an optical density at 600 nm of 0.4, and ß-galactosidase activity was assayed with a SpectraMax plate reader, as previously described (24). The strains used were vector strain YN513 (hns::kan/pBAD24) and pBAD-RssB strain YN514 (hns::kan/pBAD24-RssB). (B) Samples were removed at the same time as described above for panel for A, and RpoS levels were determined by Western blotting as described in the legend to Fig. 1.
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We constructed a chromosomal nonphosphorylatable rssB mutation, replacing the wild-type allele of rssB with rssBD58P by recombineering (4); this allele has been shown to have some activity when it is overexpressed, but it cannot be phosphorylated (11). RpoS stability was determined by Western blotting after a spectinomycin chase (Fig. 3). Consistent with our previous results (Fig. 1), in an rssB+ host, RpoS was 10-fold more stable in an hns mutant than in an hns+ strain (Fig. 3A and B). Also, as previously found for an rssBD58A allele (16), RpoS turnover was modestly (2.5-fold) slower in the rssBD58P strain than in an rssB+ strain (Fig. 3). We noted that the effect of changing the Asp58 residue in the chromosome (16; this study) is apparently less dramatic in terms of RpoS stability than it is in experiments in which the mutant form of RssB is expressed from a plasmid, even when expression was at levels believed to be similar to those from the chromosome (11, 14). We do not currently have an explanation for this difference.
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FIG. 3. RpoS turnover in rssBD58P strains. Strains were grown in LB medium at 37°C, and RpoS turnover was analyzed as described in the legend to Fig. 1. Symbols: , wild-type strain YN879 (rpoS::tet/pBAD24-RpoS); , hns strain YN881(rpoS::tet hns::kan/pBAD24-RpoS); , rssBD58P strain YN872 (rpoS::tet rssBD58P/pBAD24-RpoS); , rssBD58P hns strain YN873 (rpoS::tet hns::kan rssBD58P/pBAD24-RpoS).
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Conclusions. The results presented here show that an hns mutant had a profound effect on RpoS stability, independent of any effect of hns on synthesis of RpoS or RssB and without leading to stabilization of other ClpXP substrates. Thus, the hns effect on RpoS stability is specific to the RssB-dependent degradation pathway. Surprisingly, this effect is also independent of RssB phosphorylation, but it can be overcome by high levels of RssB. Our results suggest that in the hns mutant, RssB is present but inactive.
One explanation for these results postulates a protein(s) that is capable of protecting RpoS from degradation, possibly by blocking RssB access to RpoS, since overproduction of RssB can bypass the defect (Fig. 2). If the protein is synthesized only in hns cells and is not abundant in hns+ cells under the growth conditions used here, the effect of hns mutants would be explained. What is the role of the proposed H-NS repression of a gene or genes that, in turn, regulate RpoS stability? We predict that, as for other H-NS-repressed genes, H-NS repression is overcome by binding of a positive regulator under specific environmental conditions. This would allow specific stabilization of RpoS under whatever stress condition leads to activation of the specific RssB inhibitor. If in fact H-NS regulation of this putative gene is negative, this supports the idea that rapid degradation of RpoS may be the default situation, and stabilization under specific conditions underlies regulated proteolysis.
Recent results in our laboratory provide a further basis for understanding this phenomenon. A genetic screen led to the identification of a small protein, IraP, that stabilizes RpoS when it is overproduced, apparently by binding to RssB. It too acts even on the nonphosphorylatable form of RssB (3). IraP is not solely responsible for the stabilization of RpoS in hns mutants, however, since mutation of iraP in an hns mutant does not restore rapid RpoS degradation (A. Bougdour, unpublished observations). We propose that one or more functional homologs of IraP are responsible for stabilization of RpoS in the hns mutant. One candidate for such a gene, yhhP, was identified by Yamashino and coworkers as contributing to the stabilization of RpoS in hns strains (21), but this gene has recently been shown to encode a tRNA modification enzyme, suggesting a thus-far-unexplained level of complexity in regulation of RpoS degradation (9).
This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH National Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Research.
Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/. ![]()
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