Journal of Bacteriology, November 2006, p. 7992-7996, Vol. 188, No. 22
0021-9193/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JB.00959-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Antimicrobial Research Centre and Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8N 3Z5, Canada,1 Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, 830 North University, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-10482
Received 2 July 2006/ Accepted 29 August 2006
|
|
|---|
|
|
|---|
In addition to the above-mentioned proteins, there is also emerging evidence for a role for EngA in ribosome function (1, 21). The EngA protein is a broadly conserved bacterial GTPase that lacks a human orthologue and has been shown to be indispensable for a variety of gram-positive and gram-negative organisms (11, 12, 17, 18); its physiological role in the cell, however, is currently unresolved. Evidence for a link to the ribosome includes the results of a large-scale study wherein EngA copurified with five ribosomal proteins (6). Furthermore, the defective polysome profile of a mutant of RrmJ/(FtsJ), an E. coli heat shock methyltransferase, was rescued by overexpression of EngA or CgtAE (25). The only phenotype that has been shown for EngA-depleted cells, however, is cell filamentation in the E. coli and Bacillus subtilis conditional nulls (12).
The GTP-binding superfamily is very diverse and widely distributed. Interestingly, EngA and its orthologues are the only members of the superfamily that are known to contain two GTP-binding domains. A 1.9 Å X-ray structure of Thermotoga maritima EngA shows that the two domains are folded on either side of a C-terminal KH-like domain (21). The results of a study of T. maritima EngA suggested that G domain 2 does not make a contribution to the overall GTPase activity of the protein in vitro, since an Asn-to-Asp mutation in the G4 motif of this domain did not alter the observed activity. In the same study, a truncation variant suggested that G domain 2 possessed half of the activity of the full-length protein (21). This apparent paradox and a paucity of in vivo data regarding the significance of the two G domains, in particular with respect to ribosome function, prompted the work described here.
Here, we report the creation of a precise deletion in E. coli engA complemented with an ectopic copy at the araBAD locus under arabinose control. We found that variants in G domain 1 and G domain 2 (S16A and S217A, respectively) were unable to support life in the engA null, suggesting that the GTPase activities of both domains are indispensable to the critical cellular function of EngA. Polysome profiles of EngA-depleted cells revealed a decrease in the level of 70S ribosomes and an accumulation of ribosomal subunits compared to fully complemented or wild-type cell results. That EngA cofractionated with the 50S subunit further suggests a link to ribosome function. S16A and S217A variants were unable to restore wild-type levels of 70S ribosomes in the null strain, suggesting that both G domains are important for both viability and function. Furthermore, steady-state kinetic studies of the pure recombinant protein revealed that mutations targeting either G domain had a significant and cooperative impact on the GTPase activity of the protein as a whole.
Construction of a strain suitable for depletion of EngA. In order to probe the cellular function of engA, a strain was created wherein the gene deletion was complemented from a distant locus on the chromosome under the control of the tightly regulated PBAD promoter. (Strains and plasmids used in the study are shown in Table 1.) Strain EB1208 was constructed by insertion of a second copy of engA at the araBAD locus as previously described (8). The conditional null, EB1209, was then created by replacing native engA with a chloramphenicol resistance cassette (10). Growth of EB1208 and EB1209 was characterized on solid rich media in the presence or absence of 2% L-arabinose. The engA diploid strain displayed similar levels of growth in the presence and in the absence of arabinose; the conditional null, however, was dependent on arabinose to form single colonies (Fig. 1A). In the absence of an inducer, growth was only observed for this strain in the area of heavy inoculation and was likely due to a low level of leaky expression from PBAD.
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 1. Strains and plasmids used in this study
|
![]() View larger version (42K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 1. Complementation of the lethal phenotype of EB1209 by G-domain mutants. (A) The engA diploid strain (EB1208) and the arabinose-inducible null (EB1209) grown on LB-agar-kanamycin in the presence (left) or absence (right) of arabinose. (B) Strains were grown on LB-agar-ampicillin in the presence (left) or absence (right) of 2% (wt/vol) L-Ara. Shown on each plate is EB1209 harboring pDEST14 carrying wild-type engA (EB1487), K15A (EB1262), S16A (EB1263), K216A (EB1486), or S217A (EB1456). (C) Analysis of the expression levels of EngA and its variants from pDEST14 by Western blotting. Lysates obtained from cultures that were grown to an optical density at 600 nm of 0.8 were subjected to Western blot analysis using -EngA (Cocalico Biologicals, Reamstown, PA) or -maltose binding protein (New England Biolabs, Beverley, MA) rabbit polyclonal primary antibody and donkey -rabbit horseradish peroxidase-conjugated secondary antibody. The first and second lanes contain EB1209 grown in the presence or absence of 1% L-Ara, respectively. The remaining lanes contain EB1209 harboring pDEST14 carrying wild-type engA (lane 3), K15A (lane 4), S16A (lane 5), K216A (lane 6), or S217A (lane 7).
|
The ability of these sequences to complement the lethal phenotype of the deletion was checked on solid rich media in the presence or absence of arabinose. The deletion mutant was in a genetic background that does not produce T7 RNA polymerase, but its lethal phenotype could be complemented by the leaky expression from the T7 promoter of pDEST14 carrying wild-type engA, presumably from nonspecific recognition of promoter elements by E. coli RNA polymerase. K15A was the only variant that supported growth in the absence of arabinose (Fig. 1B). The inability of either S16A or S217A to complement the deletion provides the first in vivo evidence that both of the GTP-binding domains are critical to the cellular function of EngA. Western blot analysis demonstrated that wild-type EngA and all four variants were expressed from pDEST14 at similar levels (Fig. 1C). The previously reported observation that mutation of the N residue of the G4 motif NKXD in G domain 2 results in activity similar to that seen with the wild-type enzyme (21) may be due to the possibility that this Asn in G domain 2, like the Lys of G domain 1 seen here, does not make a significant enough contribution to binding to abolish GTPase activity upon mutation.
EngA-depleted cells have an altered polysome profile. Sedimentation velocity analytical ultracentrifugation was used to examine the distribution of 30S, 50S, and 70S ribosomes and proved to be a robust and reproducible method of polysome profiling. Furthermore, the interference optics used in this methodology provide a signal that is faithfully integrated to quantify the distribution of ribosomal subunits. The profiles were carried out on cells that were partially depleted of EngA by growth in the absence of arabinose. After being subcultured once, EB1209 had doubling times of approximately 30 min in the presence of arabinose and 60 min in the absence of arabinose. EB1209 grown in the presence of inducer had a profile similar to that of wild-type E. coli MG1655, with the 70S ribosomes composing at least 60% of total ribosome (Fig. 2A and B and Table 2). Upon depletion of EngA a shoulder was observed on the middle peak which may represent a mixture of immature and mature 50S subunits (Fig. 2C). This shoulder was not seen in the profiles of wild-type or complemented cells (Fig. 2A and B). Furthermore, compared to the results seen with wild-type E. coli, an approximately twofold increase was observed for the partially depleted null in the level of the 30S subunit (14.4% to 26.4%) and also the 50S subunit (23.8% to 45.4%). This was accompanied by a twofold decrease in the level of 70S (61.7% to 28.1%) (Table 2). The finding that EngA is essential for the production of wild-type levels of ribosomes suggests that the protein may be a novel ribosome assembly factor.
![]() View larger version (5K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 2. Ribosome profiles of EB1209 with or without complementation. Cells were subjected to one cycle of depletion by growth in the absence of arabinose before growing to an optical density at 600 nm of 0.20. Ribosomes were obtained from clarified lysates by centrifugation over a 35% sucrose cushion in buffer A [20 mM Tris, 10.5 mM Mg(OAc)2, 300 mM NH4Cl, 0.5 mM EDTA, 3 mM ß-mercaptoethanol, 10 µg/ml RNase-free DNase I]. The ribosomal pellet was analyzed by sedimentation velocity on a Beckman Coulter model XL-I analytical ultracentrifuge. The sedimentation time derivative method (24) was employed, using Microcal Optima v. 6.0 analysis software, to find g(S*), the Gaussian distribution of molecules, at each sedimentation coefficient (S*). Note that S* is a variation of the Svedberg coefficient (S), which is specified at 20°C in water. The effects of temperature and buffer composition on the sedimentation rate were adjusted with the program Sednterp v. 1.01 (D. B. Philo, J. P. Hayes, and T. M. Laue). The profiles of E. coli MG1655 (A), EB1209-1% L-Ara (B), and EB1209 (C) are shown.
|
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 2. The distribution of 30S, 50S, and 70S ribosomes in EB1209 containing engA or a variant
|
![]() View larger version (18K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 3. His6-EngA cofractionates predominantly with the large ribosomal subunit. Midexponential phase E. coli BL21(DE3) bacteria harboring (His6)engA-pET28a were induced with 50 µM IPTG (isopropyl-ß-D-thiogalactopyranoside) for 30 min at 22°C. The culture was incubated with 200 µg/ml chloramphenicol (FisherBiotech) for 30 s before harvesting. Cleared lysates (13 units of optical density at 260 nm) containing 100 µg/ml chloramphenicol were layered onto a 10 ml gradient of 7% to 47% sucrose in buffer B (10 mM Tris-Cl [pH 7.5], 10 mM MgCl2, 100 mM NH4Cl). Sedimentation of the ribosomes and fractionation of the gradient were carried out as previously described (27). Shown is the profile of absorbance at 254 nm resulting from fractionation. The positions of the 30S and 50S subunits, the 70S monosomes, and the polysomes are indicated. Below the polyribosome trace is an anti-His immunoblot of trichloroacetic acid-precipitated fractions showing the amount of His6-EngA detected. L, 1/100th of the total sample loaded onto the gradient.
|
Active-site substitutions in either G domain impair GTPase activity.
Untagged EngA and the variants were overexpressed from pDEST14 in BL21-AI cells and purified by Q-Sepharose Fast Flow anion exchange chromatography (Amersham Biosciences, Baie d'Urfe, Quebec, Canada). Wild-type (0.5 µM) or variant (10 µM) EngA was incubated with various GTP concentrations and 1 µCi [
-32P[GTP in assay buffer (50 mM Tris, 5 mM MgCl2 and 400 mM KCl, pH 8.0) for 10 to 120 min at 22°C. Quenched reactions were resolved by anion exchange chromatography on a Waters 600 high-performance liquid chromatography system (Milford, MA) as previously described (2). The kinetic constants kcat and Km were determined from a plot of initial velocity versus [GTP] by use of SigmaPlot 2000 software to fit the data to a single rectangular two-parameter hyperbolic function.
At steady state, a kcat of 70 h1 and a Km of 143 µM were observed for E. coli EngA (Table 3), which is comparable to the kcat of 50 h1 and Km of 110 µM reported for the T. maritima enzyme (21). Purified recombinant variant enzymes S16A, K216A, and S217A had Km constants of approximately 5 mM and turnovers of approximately 25 h1 (Table 3). Since the major impact was on the Km, this indicates that the primary effect of the mutations was a reduction in the productive binding of EngA to GTP.
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 3. Kinetic characterization of wild-type EngA and P-loop mutantsa
|
Concluding remarks. The data presented here are consistent with unique but cooperative roles for the two G domains in the function of EngA, since each was shown to be important for cell viability and for normal polysome profiles. There are several structural differences between the N- and C-terminal G domains which suggest that each has a unique character (21). The most striking is the positioning of the GTP-binding sites in relation to the uncharacterized C-terminal KH-like domain (21). In G domain 1, the conserved motifs of nucleotide binding are right at the interface, while in G domain 2, these motifs are distal to the interface. It has recently been shown that G domain 1 undergoes a rearrangement upon GDP binding which exposes a positively charged face on the KH-like domain (19). The structure suggests that the two G domains communicate differently with the KH-like domain. The remarkable level of cooperativity observed in this enzyme is also suggestive of intramolecular regulation whereby the two activities are exquisitely coordinated to achieve function.
We thank Tracey Campbell, Jennifer L. Fuentes, and Nishi Patel for their helpful insights and technical assistance.
Published ahead of print on 8 September 2006. ![]()
|
|
|---|
This article has been cited by other articles:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»