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Journal of Bacteriology, October 2006, p. 7311-7316, Vol. 188, No. 20
0021-9193/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JB.00940-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
mia
owska,1,2,
Dagmara Jakimowicz,1,2,
Aleksandra Smulczyk-Krawczyszyn,1
Keith F. Chater,2 and
Jolanta Zakrzewska-Czerwi
ska1*
Ludwik Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Weigla 12, 53-114 Wroc
aw, Poland,1
John Innes Centre, Norwich Research Park, Colney, Norwich NR4 7UH, United Kingdom2
Received 29 June 2006/ Accepted 27 July 2006
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The model organism Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) is genetically the best-studied streptomycete (1). Although the S. coelicolor life cycle and its regulators have been extensively investigated, little is known about the dynamics of chromosome replication during this complex process. So far, Streptomyces chromosome replication has been studied only in the young vegetative mycelium using pulse-labeling with [3H]thymidine (17), but the localization of replisome machinery in a single compartment has not been addressed. Visualization of a replisome(s) within single compartments of both vegetative and aerial hyphae should shed some light on important features of the multinucleoid prokaryotic cell.
The use of replication proteins tagged with green fluorescent protein (GFP) has provided an opportunity for direct observation of chromosome dynamics in vivo in a single bacterial cell (11, 19). Visualization of the replicating machinery has been achieved by fusing GFP to various DNA polymerase III holoenzyme subunits, including
(PolC) (19) and
(DnaX) (11) in Bacillus subtilis,
(HolB) and
' (HolC) in Caulobacter crescentus (13), and ß (DnaN) (15) in Escherichia coli. Recently, systematic localization of over 100 proteins fused to the GFP in B. subtilis allowed identification of new proteins associated with the replication machinery (21). So far, studies of the localization of the DNA replication apparatus using GFP-tagged replication proteins have focused only on unicellular rod-shaped bacteria that divide by binary fission and have a circular chromosome.
In this study we addressed for the first time the question of the localization of the replication machinery within compartments of Streptomyces vegetative and aerial hyphae. We attempted to determine whether replication is restricted to a fixed intracellular position(s) or is randomly distributed in multinucleoid compartments at different stages of S. coelicolor growth. The basic components of the DNA replication machinery are highly conserved in bacteria. As it is in other bacteria, DNA polymerase III is essential for replication of the S. coelicolor linear chromosome (5). S. coelicolor possesses a set of genes annotated with the replisome (http://www.sanger.ac.uk/Projects/S_coelicolor/), including dnaN, which encodes the ß-subunit of DNA polymerase III. This gene is located in the typical eubacterial block of genes (rnpA, rpmH, dnaA, and dnaN). The ß subunits dimerize to form the sliding clamp that links the core polymerase to DNA and allows DNA replication to proceed; four ß subunits are present in the DNA polymerase III holoenzyme (9, 20, 22). In this study, the GFP-tagged ß subunit (DnaN-enhanced GFP [EGFP]) was used to visualize the replisome machinery in S. coelicolor.
DnaN-EGFP fusion protein is replication active in S. coelicolor. In order to localize the replication machinery in the hyphae of S. coelicolor, we constructed strain J3337, which expresses chromosomally encoded EGFP-tagged DnaN instead of the wild-type protein. To maximize the likelihood that the fusion protein would be functional, a 10-amino-acid, flexible, proline- and glycine-rich linker was used (12). PCR targeting (7, 8) was used to construct J3337. Briefly, an egfp-aac3(IV)-oriT cassette (conferring apramycin resistance [Aprar]) was inserted downstream of dnaN in a kanamycin resistance (Kanr)-marked cosmid, H18. This construct was used for conjugation into S. coelicolor M145. Aprar exconjugants were screened for the loss of Kanr, indicating that there was double-crossover allelic exchange of the dnaN locus. The presence of DnaN-EGFP in S. coelicolor cell extracts was examined by scanning sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis-separated total proteins with a phosphorimager (Typhoon 8600 variable mode imager) equipped with a 488-nm laser as described previously (12). A fusion protein that was the expected size (68 kDa) was identified in the cell extract (Fig. 1A). In liquid media the growth rate of the strain obtained (J3337) was similar to that of the wild type, but on solid media J3337 grew more slowly (data not shown). To examine the subcellular localization of ongoing DNA replication in the vegetative and aerial hyphae, J3337 was inoculated at the acute-angle junction of coverslips inserted at a 45° angle in MM agar containing 1% mannitol (14). After 26 h (vegetative mycelium) and 42 or 66 h (aerial mycelium), the presence of fluorescence foci was analyzed using a Nikon Eclipse 600 or Zeiss Axio Imager Z1 microscope equipped with a x100 objective. Green fluorescent foci were seen in both vegetative and aerial hyphae (see below). No such foci were seen in control strain S. coelicolor M145(pIJ8641) (J. Sun, unpublished data) expressing EGFP (27 kDa).
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FIG. 1. Analysis of Streptomyces strains expressing DnaN-EGFP. (A) Time course of DnaN-EGFP production in S. coelicolor (left) and expression of DnaN-EGFP in S. lividans TK24 after treatment with novobiocin (right). Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis-separated total proteins were scanned with a phosphorimager. Strains were grown on MM agar containing 1% mannitol (S. coelicolor) or in YEME-TSB liquid medium (S. lividans) at 30°C (14). Lane WT, wild-type strain; lane M, molecular weight markers; lane egfp, S. coelicolor M145(pIJ8641) expressing unfused EGFP (27 kDa). (B) Effect of DNA replication on the presence of replisome foci. S. lividans TK24 dnaN-egfp cultures were treated with novobiocin (final concentration, 200 µg/ml) for 120 min (middle panels) or with kanamycin (final concentration, 50 µg/ml) for 120 min (right panels). The left panels contained untreated cells. The strain was grown in 2x YT medium (13) at 30°C. Scale bars, 5 µm.
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FIG. 2. Localization of replicative DNA polymerase in the vegetative mycelium and aerial mycelium of S. coelicolor. S. coelicolor dnaN-egfp was grown for 26 h (vegetative mycelium) or for 42 to 66 h (aerial mycelium). The images show overlays of the DnaN-EGFP (green) fluorescence and cell walls stained with WGA (red) or DNA stained with 7-aminoactinomycin D (only in the case of spore chains). Scale bars, 5 µm. The diagram in the center shows the positions of the different types of compartments analyzed in the vegetative mycelium and aerial mycelium. (A) Germinating spores; (B) vegetative hyphae; (C) aerial hyphae; (D) apical compartments of aerial hyphae; (E) prespores and spores. The numbered arrowheads indicate examples of different types of fluorescence, as follows: arrowhead 1, bright foci; arrowhead 2, diffuse foci; arrowhead 3, dispersed fluorescence; arrowhead 4, lack of fluorescence. Red and yellow arrowheads indicate cross walls and tips of hyphae, respectively.
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Chromosome replication is not uniform in the vegetative mycelium. We observed different types of fluorescence in different hyphal compartments, from bright foci to diffuse foci (often both were present in the same compartment) and from dispersed fluorescence to a lack of fluorescence (Fig. 2 shows examples of different types of fluorescence). We assumed that the diffuse or dispersed fluorescence was a result of the different stages of assembly and disassembly of the replication machinery. To relate the positions of the different forms of DnaN-EGFP fluorescence to the positions of compartments in the mycelium, we stained the cell wall with wheat germ agglutinin-tetramethylrhodamine conjugate (WGA) as described previously (25).
In the vegetative mycelium (Fig. 2B), only 22% of the compartments analyzed had compact bright foci (8%) or mixed foci (bright and diffuse) (14%) (Fig. 3), indicating that these compartments were replication active. In 60% of the vegetative hyphal compartments, the foci were diffuse (27%) or fluorescence was evenly dispersed through the entire compartment (33%), indicating that replisomes were at various stages of disassembly, while 18% of the vegetative compartments analyzed lacked any green fluorescence, suggesting that DNA replication was not taking place in them and indicating that there was rather rapid turnover of the fluorescent protein. In contrast, Kummer and Kretschmer (17) reported that vegetative mycelium did not contain compartment-sized regions without DNA synthesis. However, it should be noted that the cell walls were not visualized in their study; therefore, it was impossible to examine DNA synthesis in relation to the single compartment. Moreover, the mycelia were labeled with [3H]thymidine for up to 2 hours, while the replication of the entire S. coelicolor chromosome lasts approximately 90 to 100 min (18). If during the experiment the replication forks were disassembled, the newly synthesized DNA strands would have already been labeled. Thus, the study of Kummer and Kretschmer did not reflect the "current" replication activity.
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FIG. 3. Types of DnaN-EGFP fluorescence in the vegetative and aerial hyphae of S. coelicolor. In the analysis 256 and 183 compartments of the vegetative mycelium and the aerial mycelium, respectively, were examined.
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Different pattern of replisome formation in aerial hyphae. In older cultures (66 h) we could clearly distinguish regions of very weak replication activity in what we believe were older parts of the vegetative hyphae, as well as regions where most of the hyphal compartments contained bright foci. The latter represented intensively growing unbranched aerial hyphae that were easily recognized by their strong staining with WGA (12). Apical compartments of the aerial mycelium (Fig. 2D) always contained fluorescent foci; 23% of them contained only bright foci, 45% contained mixed bright and diffuse foci, and the rest contained diffuse foci (Fig. 3). Thus, the aerial apical compartments were much more replication active than other compartments of the mycelium (Fig. 3). Interestingly, 31% of subapical "second" compartments showed no fluorescence (Fig. 2E). Generally, prespores and spores in chains did not exhibit any fluorescence foci (Fig. 2E); only diffuse fluorescence was observed, presumably the result of disassembly of the replication machinery, and the intensity diminished as the spore chains matured. Foci reappeared in the initial stage of spore germination; at this stage germinating spores contained double or even triple bright fluorescent foci, suggesting that in these spores DNA replication had already started (Fig. 2A). As germination proceeded, emerging germ tubes possessed increasing numbers of foci (up to five or six foci) (Fig. 1B and 2A).
The aerial apical compartments contained more foci (on average, six foci) than any other compartments of the mycelium. The number of foci in these compartments varied, and some apical had more than 10 bright foci (one example had 14 foci within a compartment about 35 µm long). In shorter and younger compartments (10 to 20 µm) the foci were more densely spaced than they were in longer and older hyphae (20 to 40 µm), as if the latter hyphae were reaching the growth limit and replication was stopping. Statistically, the distance between an apical focus and the tip in the aerial hyphae, particularly in younger compartments, was shorter than the corresponding distance in the vegetative mycelium; in the majority of apical foci (64%) the distances ranged from 0 to 1.5 µm. Most likely the fast growth of apical compartments of aerial hyphae and the associated demand for increased chromosome number require an increase in replisome number within one compartment. As in the case of vegetative hyphae, the formation and distribution of DnaN-EGFP foci in developing aerial hyphae seemed to complement, rather than echo, the distribution of ParB complexes (12); ParB-EGFP foci formed in apical compartments only when replication of chromosomes was completed and were associated with every copy of the chromosome. Again, this suggests that the formation of ParB complexes may compete with the assembly of replisomes. The distances between DnaN-EGFP foci were irregular in aerial compartments, whether they were apical or subapical.
Asynchrony of replication within compartments. The mixture of bright and diffuse DnaN-EGFP foci seen in a substantial proportion (45%) of the apical compartments analyzed, and to a lesser extent in other compartments, suggests that the replication of chromosomes was asynchronous within these compartments. Moreover, within a single compartment consisting of both vegetative and aerial hyphae the number of bright compact fluorescent foci was substantially less than the chromosome number; a single aerial apical compartment could contain up to 50 chromosomes, while we observed a maximum of 14 bright foci per compartment. Only 10% of compartments contained more than 10 foci. Since each focus should be associated with the formation of two daughter chromosomes from one parent, it is expected that the number of replisomes should not exceed one-half the final number of chromosomes and should therefore seldom exceed about 25. Although it is possible that each fluorescent focus represents the replication of two or more chromosomes, the low apparent ratio of replisomes to chromosomes, coupled with the asynchrony of replication indicated by the heterogeneous appearance of foci in many compartments, leads us to think that not all chromosomes in actively growing compartments are associated with replisomes at any particular time.
Conclusions. Streptomyces chromosome replication takes place along much of the vegetative and aerial hyphae, although the rapidly extending apical compartments of the aerial mycelium have more active replication than any other compartments, consistent with the particularly rapid rate of extension of these compartments suggested by Chater and Losick (3). Within a single compartment, the number of ongoing DNA replications seems to be lower than the chromosome number, indicating that this process is asynchronous and that only selected chromosomes undergo replication at any one time. Thus, replication appears to follow the Jesuit dictum "many are called, but few are chosen." Clarification of the mechanism of origin selection in this multinucleoid organism would be of considerable interest.
This work was supported by the Ministry of Scientific Research and Information Research (grant 2P04A 054 29). D.J. was supported by Marie Curie Reintegration Grant MERG-6-CT-2005-014851. K.F.C., B.R.-O., and J.Z.-C. acknowledge support from the British-Polish Research Partnership Programme (Polish Committee of Scientific Studies, British Council).
B.R.-O. and D.J. contributed equally to this work. ![]()
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