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Journal of Bacteriology, January 2006, p. 569-575, Vol. 188, No. 2
0021-9193/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JB.188.2.569-575.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Department of Microbiology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia
Received 4 August 2005/ Accepted 19 October 2005
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The gene encoding P1 (MPN141) is the second of three genes thought to constitute a transcriptional unit expressed from a single promoter upstream of the first gene and having a predicted stem-loop terminator following the third (Fig. 1A) (12). MPN140, the first gene of the three and also known as ORF4, encodes a predicted phosphoesterase (1). The presence but not the predicted biochemical activity of the MPN140 gene product has been demonstrated (13). Immediately downstream of MPN141 is MPN142, also known as ORF6. The MPN142 gene product has a predicted size of 130 kDa but is cleaved to yield two polypeptides of sizes 90 and 40 kDa (18) also known as P90 and P40 (26) or B and C (9), respectively. Interestingly, the gene products of MPN142 homologs in the closely related Mycoplasma genitalium and Mycoplasma gallisepticum are present as single polypeptides (20, 22), indicating that the roles of B and C are highly interrelated. Proteins B and C are integral membrane proteins located at the attachment organelle in proximity to P1 (6, 19), are required for P1 function, and with P1 likely constitute a major adhesin complex.
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FIG. 1. RT-PCR analysis of the MPN140 to MPN142 locus of M. pneumoniae. (A) Map of the locus in M. pneumoniae. The arrow indicates transcriptional promoter upstream of MPN140. The intergenic sequences are shown above the map, with 12 and 5 nt (in lowercase) separating MPN140 and MPN141, and MPN141 and MPN142, respectively. A predicted stem-loop terminator (not indicated) begins 17 nt downstream of MPN142. Locations corresponding to annealing sites of oligonucleotide primer sets A-G (Table 2) used for RT-PCR are shown below the map. Restriction enzyme sites for PmeI (P) and SphI (Sp) referenced in Fig. 2 are shown. Scale bar is 1 kb. (B) Agarose gel electrophoresis of RT-PCR products. RT-PCRs for primer pairs A-G with wild-type M. pneumoniae RNA template are shown. RT was included (+) or omitted (). Locations of DNA markers and their sizes in base pairs are indicated.
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TABLE 1. Strains examined in this study
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RNA preparation and RT-PCR. All RNA experiments used RNase-free reagents, and labware was treated to eliminate RNase (24). RNA was purified from 10-ml mid-logarithmic-phase cultures by using the RNAqueous-4PCR kit (Ambion, Austin, Tex.) according to the instructions, except that the DNase treatment required 10% (vol/vol) enzyme incubated for 2 h. The boundaries and gene linkage for the transcriptional unit encompassing MPN142 were analyzed by RT-PCR using the Access RT-PCR kit (Promega), with amplicons visualized by using agarose gel electrophoresis and ethidium bromide staining. PCR primers were designed to amplify regions 407 to 812 nucleotides in length which were internal to each gene of the predicted transcriptional unit, spanned their junctions, or were outside its predicted limits (Table 2) (Fig. 1A). Controls without RT were used to detect residual DNA contamination. RNA yields were below the limit of detection of UV spectroscopy, and the amounts necessary for RT-PCR were determined empirically with equal volumes used in each set of reactions for a given preparation.
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TABLE 2. Summary of RT-PCR analysis of the P1 operon
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Plasmid construction. Recombinant genes can be introduced into M. pneumoniae using a modified Tn4001 (7). The plasmids used in the present study are shown in Fig. 2. Plasmids pKV258 and pKV264, whose construction is described elsewhere (30), were used here extensively. In pKV258, MPN141 and MPN142 are expressed from the POUT promoter of Tn4001. In pKV264, MPN142 is likewise expressed from this promoter. The ability to couple translation of MPN142 to MPN141 is preserved, but 95% of the MPN141 gene is missing due to an internal in-frame deletion. For pKV265, the 1.5-kb BamHI fragment of pKV258 was removed, and the remainder of the plasmid was religated, leaving MPN142 and a large region of the upstream DNA intact but disrupting the 5' end of MPN141, along with possible translation initiation signals. Plasmid pKV104 carries a modified version of Tn4001 (Tn4001cat) for which the original gentamicin resistance gene was replaced with a chloramphenicol resistance gene (8). A 5.7-kb EcoRI fragment bearing MPN141 in pUC19 (a gift from J. Baseman) was excised and subjected to a Klenow fill-in reaction and then ligated into the SmaI site of pKV104 oriented such that MPN141 is under the control of the POUT promoter of Tn4001cat to generate pKV299.
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FIG. 2. Map of the DNA constructs cloned into IS256L of Tn4001mod of pKV74 or Tn4001cat of pKV104 to create pKV258, pKV264, pKV265, and pKV299. Except for the IS elements, all open reading frames are shown with the 5' end on the left. The region encoding the 3' end of MPN140 is not indicated. B, BamHI; Bs, BsaBI; E, EcoRI; S, StuI; Sm/P, SmaI/PmeI junction; M/E/Sp, former SphI site of the P1 operon replaced by MfeI linker and present as an MfeI/EcoRI junction; E or Sm, EcoRI in pKV74 or SmaI in pKV104. The barred symbol indicates a silent change to destroy the site. Gentamicin resistance (Gmr) is found in pKV74, and chloramphenicol resistance (Cmr) is found in pKV104. The arrow from Tn4001mod/cat shows the location and direction of the POUT promoter. Note that the orientation of the inserts is inverted when cloned into Tn4001mod/cat.
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Restoration of proteins P1/B/C in mutant IV-22. When mutant IV-22, which has a frameshift mutation in MPN141, was transformed with pKV258 (wild-type recombinant MPN141 and MPN142; Fig. 2), recombinant proteins P1, B, and C were each observed at approximately wild-type levels (Fig. 3). However, when mutant IV-22 was transformed with pKV264 (near total in-frame deletion in MPN141 and wild-type MPN142; Fig. 2), protein B was present at greatly reduced levels, while protein C was barely detectable in immunoblots and P1, as expected, remained absent (Fig. 3). In contrast, mutant III-4 transformed with pKV264 produced wild-type levels of B and C (30) (Fig. 3). Thus, the recombinant MPN142 in pKV264 is functional and expressed at approximately wild-type levels, but the fate of B and C differed between the III-4 and IV-22 mutant backgrounds.
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FIG. 3. Western blot analysis of lysates of wild-type (WT) or mutant (IV-22 or III-4) M. pneumoniae untransformed or transformed with pKV258 or pKV264. Two independent transformants are shown for each plasmid-background combination. A total of 60 µg of protein was used per lane. Blots were probed with antiserum to P1, B, or C as indicated.
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FIG. 4. Western blot analysis of lysates of wild-type (WT) or mutant (IV-22) M. pneumoniae untransformed or transformed with pKV264, pKV299, or pKV264 and pKV299. Three independent transformants are shown for each construct in the mutant IV-22 background except IV-22+pKV264 (see Fig. 3). A total of 60 µg of protein was used per lane. Blots were probed with antiserum to P1, B, or C as indicated.
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FIG. 5. Western blot analysis of lysates of wild-type (WT) or mutant (IV-22 or III-4) M. pneumoniae untransformed or transformed with pKV265. Two independent transformants are shown for each construct-background combination. A total of 60 µg of protein was used per lane. Blots were probed with antiserum to P1, B, or C as indicated.
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Analysis of MPN140 to MPN142 in M. pneumoniae by RT-PCR demonstrated that these three genes constitute a transcriptional unit, as suggested by others previously (12). However, the nonquantitative nature of simple RT-PCR limits the conclusions that might be drawn about transcription and prompted our genetic approach. Proteins P1, B, and C were restored to wild-type levels in mutant IV-22 by the introduction of recombinant MPN141 and MPN142 by transposon delivery in cis (pKV258; Fig. 3) or in trans (pKV264 and pKV299; Fig. 4). When wild-type MPN142 was present downstream of translatable but nonfunctional MPN141 having a major in-frame deletion (pKV264), recombinant proteins B and C were observed at wild-type levels in the mutant III-4 background (30) (Fig. 3). However, when introduced into a P1-less background (mutant IV-22), the same construct yielded only low levels of proteins B and C. We conclude that recombinant MPN142 was expressed at normal levels in both backgrounds, but proteins B and C were unstable in the absence of P1. The converse is not seen, however, as P1 is stable in the absence of proteins B and C, as with mutant III-4 (17). We were unable to track the fate of newly synthesized proteins B and C by pulse-chase radioimmunoprecipitation analysis (data not shown). However, transposon delivery of wild-type MPN141 in trans (pKV299) into mutant IV-22 transformed with pKV264 yielded wild-type levels of B and C (Fig. 4), supporting the interpretation that recombinant MPN142 is indeed expressed normally from pKV264 in mutant IV-22 and that the stability of proteins B and C requires the presence of P1. This nonreciprocal requirement for stability is similar to that seen in M. pneumoniae with HMW3 and the two proteins HMW1 and HMW2. In that case, HMW3 is unstable if HMW1 or HMW2 levels are reduced (23, 31), but HMW1 and HMW2 are present at wild-type levels in the absence of HMW3 (32).
The MPN142 gene in mutant IV-22 has a wild-type nucleotide sequence (data not shown), but the restoration of just recombinant MPN141 in trans using pKV299 was not sufficient to restore levels of B and C fully (Fig. 4), with only trace amounts of B and little or no C detected. This is similar to what is seen in the closely related M. gallisepticum, where coexpression of the recombinant homologs for MPN141 and MPN142 is necessary (21). The MPN141 gene in mutant IV-22 encodes a drastically truncated protein (46 versus 1,627 residues) due to a frameshift (27). Once the translation machinery has encountered the premature stop codon in the corresponding MPN141 transcript the ribosome likely disassociates from the mRNA. In contrast, the translation of MPN142 in wild-type M. pneumoniae probably begins before the ribosome can disassociate. This coupling of translation between MPN141 and MPN142 would likely ensure near-equimolar amounts of the two gene products. However, when wild-type MPN141 was delivered to mutant IV-22 in trans, small amounts of proteins B and C were detected and could only have come from the native allele, suggesting one or more of the following: (i) translation of MPN142 can proceed at low levels despite premature termination of MPN141 translation, (ii) limited translation reinitiation occurs independent of coupling, or (iii) the untranslated message is less stable, resulting in less protein than would otherwise be produced. Regardless, the products (B and C) could only be seen in the presence of P1, indicating that their stability requires the presence of the adhesin.
In order to distinguish the factors driving the limited translation of MPN142 seen in mutant IV-22, we produced a construct possessing wild-type MPN142 and a large portion of upstream sequence but lacking the 5' end of MPN141, including any likely translation initiation signals (pKV265). When pKV265 was introduced into mutant IV-22, no MPN142 products were detected (Fig. 5), as expected in the absence of P1. Mutant III-4 transformed with pKV265 produced less than wild-type amounts of proteins B and C, probably the result of translation initiation independent of coupling to MPN141, with the balance of protein B or C synthesis due to coupling. Significantly, the M. pneumoniae gene cluster encoding the cell division protein FtsZ exhibits a decrease in mRNA levels with distance from the promoter (4) and, if the same holds for the MPN140 to MPN142 gene cluster, this might account for the need for coupling-independent translation initiation.
When P1, B, and C were restored in mutant IV-22 by transformation with pKV258 or both pKV264 and pKV299, the transformants exhibited a phenotype that was clearly distinct from both wild-type and mutant IV-22 M. pneumoniae, with an intermediate morphology and attachment to plastic but no adherence to erythrocytes (data not shown). The essential role of proteins B and C in hemadsorption has recently been confirmed (30). Furthermore, cytadherence and virulence in an avirulent high-passage M. gallisepticum strain can be restored by the introduction of recombinant homologs of MPN141 and MPN142 (21), suggesting that restoration of each should be sufficient to confer an otherwise fully wild-type phenotype to the mutant IV-22 transformants. There are at least three possible explanations for the failure to restore mutant IV-22 transformants fully to a wild-type phenotype. First, transposon insertion could have affected a gene whose product was associated with cytadherence, but this seems unlikely given that multiple transformants with pKV258 were examined. Alternatively, a secondary mutation may have occurred during filter cloning of mutant IV-22. However, this strain has wild-type levels of all other known cytadherence accessory proteins for which antibody is available (2), and spontaneous hemadsorption-positive revertants of mutant IV-22 were obtained from the original non-filter-cloned population (16), suggesting a single defect is responsible for the mutant phenotype. The possibility of a secondary mutation might be reconciled by assessing lower-passage non-filter-cloned stocks of mutant IV-22 to isolate what we believe to be the original mutant IV-22. A third possibility is that MPN140 is required in cis to MPN141 in order for the P1/B/C complex to be fully functional. Regardless, the current study significantly expands our understanding of the relationship between MPN141 and MPN142 and their products.
A model of the protein interactions necessary for the formation of the M. pneumoniae attachment organelle and cytadherence competence was recently described (14). In that model, several protein interactions are shown to be important for the proper localization of functional P1, B, and C, which are treated as a single unit. Here evidence is presented supporting the hypothesis that P1, B, and C are closely tied in function and possibly act in concert to confer cytadherence, because MPN141 and MPN142 are connected at the levels of transcription and translation. Furthermore, it is shown that there are distinct, measurable, and nonreciprocal characteristics of these proteins, namely, that B and C require the presence of P1, but the converse does not hold, although B and C are required for P1 function. It is possible that interaction with P1 promotes the proper folding of B and C. This finding and the genetic tools used here now allow an exploration of the regions of P1 necessary for the stabilization and thus likely interaction and binding with B and C.
This study was supported by the Public Health Service research grant AI23362 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (D.C.K.) and a National Science Foundation Research Training Grant in Prokaryotic Diversity (NSF BIR9413235) (R.H.W.).
Present address: University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN 38163. ![]()
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