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Journal of Bacteriology, February 2001, p. 1423-1433, Vol. 183, No. 4
Department of Microbiology and Immunology,
University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
21201
Received 1 September 2000/Accepted 16 November 2000
Proteus mirabilis, a gram-negative bacterium associated
with complicated urinary tract infections, produces a metalloenzyme urease which hydrolyzes urea to ammonia and carbon dioxide. The apourease is comprised of three structural subunits, UreA, UreB, and
UreC, assembled as a homotrimer of individual UreABC heterotrimers (UreABC)3. To become catalytically active, apourease
acquires divalent nickel ions through a poorly understood process
involving four accessory proteins, UreD, UreE, UreF, and UreG. While
homologues of UreD, UreF, and UreG have been copurified with apourease,
it remains unclear specifically how these polypeptides associate with
the apourease or each other. To identify interactions among P. mirabilis accessory proteins, in vitro immunoprecipitation and in
vivo yeast two-hybrid assays were employed. A complex containing accessory protein UreD and structural protein UreC was isolated by
immunoprecipitation and characterized with immunoblots. This association occurs independently of coaccessory proteins UreE, UreF,
and UreG and structural protein UreA. In a yeast two-hybrid screen,
UreD was found to directly interact in vivo with coaccessory protein
UreF. Unique homomultimeric interactions of UreD and UreF were also
detected in vivo. To substantiate the study of urease proteins with a
yeast two-hybrid assay, previously described UreE dimers and
homomultimeric UreA interactions among apourease trimers were confirmed
in vivo. Similarly, a known structural interaction involving UreA and
UreC was also verified. This report suggests that in vivo, P. mirabilis UreD may be important for recruitment of UreF to the
apourease and that crucial homomultimeric associations occur among
these accessory proteins.
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.4.1423-1433.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Interaction of Proteus mirabilis Urease
Apoenzyme and Accessory Proteins Identified with Yeast Two-Hybrid
Technology
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201. Phone: (410) 706-0466. Fax: (410) 706-6751. E-mail: hmobley{at}umaryland.edu.
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