| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

ubo
ová,
Kathleen Sandman,
Elizabeth A. Karr,
Andrew J. Cochran, and
John N. Reeve*
Department of Microbiology, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1292
Received 31 January 2007/ Accepted 19 March 2007
| ABSTRACT |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| TEXT |
|---|
|
|
|---|
helix-turn-
helix (HTH) DNA-binding domain (3) and a small molecule-binding ACT domain (1). While there is no precedent for an ACT domain that binds tryptophan, most ACT domains do bind amino acids and binding allosterically regulates metabolic enzymes and transcription factors (4, 6, 10, 16). To investigate TrpY further, we isolated 5-methyl tryptophan (5MT)-resistant mutants of M. thermautotrophicus based on the observation that two 5MT-resistant mutants of a close relative, Methanothermobacter marburgensis, appeared to be defective in TrpY repression of trpEGCFBAD expression (7). Sequencing of the trpY gene amplified from 100 spontaneously 5MT-resistant mutants has confirmed the specificity of this selection for mutations in trpY, and as described below, TrpY variants that are defective in DNA and/or tryptophan binding have been obtained. In vivo and in vitro assays of these variants have confirmed that TrpY must bind DNA and tryptophan to repress trpEGCFBAD transcription but have also revealed that this is not per se sufficient for repression.
|
The same mutation, a G-C to A-T transition, was present in 33 of the amplified trpY genes. This changed codon 149 from GGA to AGA and so resulted in a TrpY variant with a glycine-to-arginine substitution, designated TrpYG149R. Some of the 5MT-resistant colonies could have originated from 5MT-resistant sibling cells, but in each separate repetition of the selection procedure,
35% of the trpY genes amplified from separate colonies had this mutation. Such G-C to A-T transitions likely result from cytosine deamination followed by replication of the resulting G-U base pairs, although M. thermautotrophicus does have an endonuclease that removes deoxyuridines from DNA (9). Sixteen of the BPS were G-C to T-A transversions, and 14 of these were T-for-G substitutions in the DNA strand shown in Fig. 1B, despite Gs on this strand outnumbering Gs on the opposite strand by only 155 to 114. This strand bias could reflect the trpY sequence (MTH1654) shown in Fig. 1B being on the lagging strand for DNA replication (22) or being transcribed in the opposite direction from chromosome replication (21).
Most of the BPS and all of the deletions and insertions resulted in premature nonsense codons in trpY and encoded truncated TrpY variants that were therefore nonfunctional and/or too unstable in vivo to maintain trp operon repression. At seven locations, missense mutations in trpY conferred 5MT resistance (Fig. 1B), specifically in three adjacent codons that changed residues within the predicted HTH DNA-binding motif (D54Y, R55L, and R56S), in three codons that changed residues in different regions of the ACT domain (L109P in
1, A128E in ß2, and G149R in
2), and in codon 15, which removed a positive charge (R15L) near the N terminus.
Synthesis and purification of recombinant TrpY and TrpY variants.
trpY (MT1654) and the mutated trpY genes encoding TrpYR15L, TrpYD54Y, TrpYR55L, TrpYR56S, TrpYL109P, TrpYA128E, and TrpYG149R were PCR amplified from genomic DNA using primers (sequences available from K.S.) that added flanking NdeI and BamHI sites that facilitated cloning of the amplified DNA into NdeI- and BamHI-digested pKS773, a derivative of pT7-7 (U.S. Biochemicals). Eight in-frame codons were added to the cloned trpY genes that encoded a C-terminal GSHHHHHH (His tag) sequence. These plasmids were transformed into Escherichia coli Rosetta (DE3) (Novagen), and synthesis of the encoded recombinant wild-type TrpY (TrpYWT) and TrpY variants was induced in cultures growing in Luria-Bertani medium by the addition of isopropyl-ß-D-thiogalactopyranoside (1 mM final concentration). After continued incubation at 37°C for 3 h, cells were harvested by centrifugation, resuspended in TSG buffer (0.1 M Tris-HCl [pH 8], 0.15 M NaCl, 15% [vol/vol] glycerol) at
0.2 g wet weight/ml, and lysed by passage through a French pressure cell at 20,000 lb/in2. The resulting lysates, clarified by centrifugation at 4°C for 30 min at 30,000 x g and then for 90 min at 114,000 x g, were loaded on to a Co2+-conjugated chelating column (Pharmacia). Bound proteins were washed with TSG containing 75 mM imidazole and then eluted with TSG containing 50 mM EDTA (pH 8). The presence of TrpYWT or a TrpY variant in eluted fractions was confirmed by Coomassie blue staining after sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. These fractions were pooled and loaded on to a heparin column (Pharmacia) equilibrated in TSG. Proteins that bound were washed with TSG and then eluted with a 0.15 to 0.5 M NaCl gradient dissolved in 0.1 M Tris-HCl (pH 8)-15% (vol/vol) glycerol. Fractions that contained only TrpYWT or a TrpY variant, based on the absence of additional Coomassie blue-staining bands after sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, were pooled, concentrated, and quantified by Bradford assays.
The effector ligands in phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase and aspartate kinase, serine and lysine, respectively, are bound between the ß1 and
2 elements of ACT domains (10, 14, 20). Site-specific mutagenesis (Quik Change; Stratagene) was therefore used to change the trpY sequence in pKS772 to obtain TrpY variants (TrpYD102A, TrpYN105A, and TrpYI108A) with residue changes in the ß1-
2 region of TrpY (Fig. 1B). The only tryptophan in TrpY is at position 2, and translation of this codon may play a sensing role in determining trp operon expression (24). We therefore used site-directed mutagenesis to delete and change codon 2 to obtain TrpYW2
, TrpYW2A, and TrpYW2F. TrpYS14A was generated to obtain a variant with a residue substitution directly adjacent that in TrpYR15L selected by 5MT resistance, and TrpYI123A changed a residue highly conserved in the ß2 region of ACT domains. All of these TrpY variants were generated in E. coli and purified as described above.
DNA binding by TrpY variants.
We established previously that TrpY binds to TRP-box sequences located between trpY and trpE (Fig. 1A) (24). This intergenic region (102 bp) plus 41 bp from the 5' region of trpY was therefore amplified, with flanking NcoI sites that facilitated cloning into NcoI-digested pLITMUS28 (New England Biolabs), for use as the substrate in DNA-binding assays. One plasmid (pKS795) had two tandem copies of the desired DNA. This was amplified, and preparative amounts of the DNA were obtained by NcoI digestion. The single-stranded NcoI ends were partially filled and 32P labeled by incubation with [32P]dATP, dCTP, and Klenow DNA polymerase. DNA-binding reaction mixtures (15 µl) contained the substrate DNA (0.5 ng), poly(dI·dC) (50 ng), and increasing amounts of TrpY or a TrpY variant in transcription buffer (20 mM Tris [pH 8], 7.5 mM MgCl2, 5 mM dithiothreitol, 120 mM KCl [19]). The complexes formed were separated by electrophoresis through nondenaturing 8% (wt/vol) polyacrylamide gels and visualized by phosphorimaging (Storm 840; Pharmacia). TrpYWT bound and retarded the mobility of the DNA, giving a gel shift, as previously documented (24), and essentially identical gel shifts were obtained with TrpYW
2, TrpYS14A, TrpYD102A, TrpYN105A, TrpYI108A, TrpYI123A, TrpYA128E, and TrpYG149R (illustrated in Fig. 2A by TrpYA128E and TrpYG149R). Gel shifts were also obtained with TrpYW2A, TrpYW2F, TrpYD54Y, and TrpYL109P, although only at higher protein-to-DNA ratios than with TrpYWT, and the complexes formed by TrpYD54Y had a different mobility from those formed by TrpYWT. In contrast, gel shifts were never observed with TrpYR56S (Fig. 2A), TrpYR15L, or TrpYR55L regardless of the protein-to-DNA ratio. For TrpYR55L and TrpYR56S, the loss of DNA-binding ability was consistent with the prediction that R55 and R56 are components of an HTH DNA-binding motif (Fig. 1B). The DNA-binding proficiency of TrpYA128E and TrpYG149R demonstrated that a loss of DNA binding was not the only TrpY defect that resulted in loss of trp operon repression.
|
, TrpYS14A, TrpYR15L, TrpYD54Y, TrpYR55L, TrpYR56S, and TrpYG149R bound tryptophan similarly (Fig. 2B). TrpYD102A and TrpYI123A also bound tryptophan, although with lower affinity than TrpYWT. In contrast, TrpYW2A, TrpYW2F, TrpYI108A, TrpYL109P, and TrpYA128E did not bind tryptophan (Fig. 2B), and TrpYN105A bound tryptophan with higher affinity than TrpYWT, consistent with the ß1-
1 region of the ACT domain (residues 105 to 107 in TrpY [Fig. 1B] [10]) being critical for ligand binding. Other than long-range folding differences, it is unclear why residue substitutions for W2 (TrpYW2A, TrpYW2F) would reduce tryptophan binding when deletion of W2 (TrpYW2
) had no detrimental effect on tryptophan binding. The properties of TrpYA128E, the ability to bind DNA (Fig. 2A) but inability to bind tryptophan (Fig. 2B), are consistent with a TrpY-tryptophan complex being required for trpEGCFBAD repression (Fig. 1A). However, as TrpYG149R binds both DNA and tryptophan (Fig. 2A and B), these binding abilities alone are not apparently sufficient for trpEGCFBAD repression.
Regulation of trpY and trpEGCFBAD transcription in vivo. To confirm that the trp operon was, in fact, derepressed in M. thermautotrophicus 5MT-resistant mutants, RNA preparations were isolated (17) from cultures grown to late exponential phase in minimal medium with or without 5 mM tryptophan. 32P-labeled oligonucleotide primers (sequences available from L.C.) complementary to sequences near the 5' termini of the trpY, trpEGCFBAD, and hmtA2 transcripts (a constitutively expressed archaeal histone-encoding gene [12]) were incubated with the RNAs for 10 min at 65°C in 0.2 M Tris-HCl-2 M NaCl-5 mM EDTA (pH 7.5). Hybridized primers were extended by SuperscriptII reverse transcriptase (200 U; Invitrogen) in reaction mixtures that contained 1 mM deoxynucleoside triphosphates, 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.3), 75 mM KCl, 3 mM MgCl2, and 10 mM dithiothreitol and that were incubated for 60 min at 42°C. The 32P-labeled extension products were separated by electrophoresis and visualized by phosphorimaging (24). In all RNA preparations, the hmtA2 transcript was readily detectable, whereas the trpY and trpE transcripts were below detectable levels in RNA preparations from wild-type M. thermautotrophicus cells grown with tryptophan. The trpY transcript was also barely detectable in RNA preparations from wild-type cells grown without tryptophan, but these RNAs did contain much higher levels of trpE, consistent with trpEGCFBAD derepression (Fig. 2C). Both the trpY and trpE transcripts were abundant in all RNA preparations isolated from 5MT-resistant mutants that lacked TrpY (TrpYW2*) or contained a variant (TrpYR56S) that lacked DNA-binding ability. TrpY binding in wild-type cells apparently therefore maintains trpY transcription below the fully derepressed level that occurs in M. thermoautotrophicum mutants that entirely lack TrpY, regardless of tryptophan availability. RNA preparations from mutants containing TrpYA128E or TrpYG149R, grown with or without tryptophan, contained the trpE transcript but barely detectable levels of the trpY transcript. These TrpY variants retain the ability to bind DNA (Fig. 2A), and this ability was apparently sufficient to repress trpY transcription in vivo but insufficient for trp operon repression. TrpYA128E has lost the ability to bind tryptophan (Fig. 2B), and the presence of trpE transcripts in cells containing TrpYA128E was consistent with trp operon repression requiring a TrpY-tryptophan complex. However, as TrpYG149R retains both DNA- and tryptophan-binding ability, the presence of trpE transcripts in cells containing TrpYG149R argues that a reaction, in addition to DNA and tryptophan binding, is required for TrpY repression of trpEGCFBAD transcription.
TrpY regulation of trpY and trpE transcription in vitro. TrpY was shown previously to regulate trpY and trpE transcription in vitro, as observed in vivo, in reaction mixtures that contain the intergenic region as template DNA plus M. thermautotrophicus RNA polymerase and the basal transcription factors TATA box-binding protein (TBP) and transcription factor B (TFB) (24). As shown in Fig. 2D, TrpYR56S, TrpYA128E, and TrpYG149R also regulated trpY and trpE transcription in vitro, as documented in vivo (Fig. 2C). TrpYWT, TrpYA128E, and TrpYG149R inhibited trpY transcription in the absence or presence of tryptophan, but only TrpYWT inhibited trpE transcription in the presence of tryptophan. Consistent with the loss of DNA-binding ability, the addition of TrpYR56S had no effect on trpY or trpE transcription in vitro.
Conclusions. The results reported add to our knowledge of both the nature of spontaneous mutations and the mechanics of trp gene regulation in a thermophilic euryarchaeon. As almost all (>90%) of the 5MT-resistant mutants of M. thermautotrophicus had mutations in trpY, this selection is remarkably gene specific and so should be very useful for archaeal mutagenesis studies. In contrast to the dominance of insertions and deletions that inactivated pyrE and pyrF in spontaneous mutants of the crenarchaeal Sulfolobus species (11, 12, 18), most of the spontaneous mutations in trpY in M. thermautotrophicus were single BPS.
The properties of the TrpY variants generated have confirmed the presence of DNA- and tryptophan-binding domains in this archaeal regulator and are consistent with TrpY and TrpY-tryptophan complexes repressing trpY and trpEGCFBAD transcription by binding to the intergenic region, as shown in Fig. 1A (24). TrpY binding to this region is apparently sufficient for trpY repression, whereas DNA and tryptophan binding and an additional reaction are required for repression of trpEGCFBAD transcription. Establishing the nature of the additional event, most likely a higher-order interaction of TrpY-tryptophan complexes, should be facilitated by investigations of TrpYG149R, as this variant retains the ability to bind DNA and tryptophan but lacks the ability to repress trpEGCFBAD transcription.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
|---|
| FOOTNOTES |
|---|
Published ahead of print on 30 March 2007. ![]()
Permanent address: Institute of Animal Biochemistry and Genetics, Ivanka Pri Dunaji, Slovak Republic. ![]()
| REFERENCES |
|---|
|
|
|---|
H: functional analysis and comparative genomics. J. Bacteriol. 179:7135-7155.This article has been cited by other articles:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Appl. Environ. Microbiol. | Infect. Immun. | Eukaryot. Cell |
|---|---|---|
| Mol. Cell. Biol. | J. Virol. | Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. |
| ALL ASM JOURNALS |