scholarly journals Characterization of the role of the RadS/RadR two-component system in the radiation resistance of Deinococcus radiodurans

Microbiology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 157 (10) ◽  
pp. 2974-2982 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shruti S. Desai ◽  
Yogendra S. Rajpurohit ◽  
Hari S. Misra ◽  
Dileep N. Deobagkar

Deinococcus radiodurans shows extraordinary tolerance to DNA damage, and exhibits differential gene expression and protein recycling. A putative response regulator, the DRB0091 (RadR) ORF, was identified from a pool of DNA-binding proteins induced in response to gamma radiation in this bacterium. radR is located upstream of drB0090, which encodes a putative sensor histidine kinase (RadS) on the megaplasmid. Deletion of these genes both individually and together resulted in hypersensitivity to DNA-damaging agents and a delayed or altered double-strand break repair. A ΔradRradS double mutant and a ΔradR single mutant showed nearly identical responses to gamma radiation and UVC. Wild-type RadR and RadS complemented the corresponding mutant strains, but also exhibited significant cross-complementation, albeit at lower doses of gamma radiation. The radS transcript was not detected in the ΔradR mutant, suggesting the existence of a radRS operon. Recombinant RadS was autophosphorylated and could catalyse the transfer of γ phosphate from ATP to RadR in vitro. These results indicated the functional interaction of RadS and RadR, and suggested a role for the RadS/RadR two-component system in the radiation resistance of this bacterium.

Microbiology ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 151 (11) ◽  
pp. 3603-3614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darío Ortiz de Orué Lucana ◽  
Peijian Zou ◽  
Marc Nierhaus ◽  
Hildgund Schrempf

The Gram-positive soil bacterium and cellulose degrader Streptomyces reticuli synthesizes the mycelium-associated enzyme CpeB, which displays haem-dependent catalase and peroxidase activity, as well as haem-independent manganese-peroxidase activity. The expression of the furS–cpeB operon depends on the redox regulator FurS and the presence of the haem-binding protein HbpS. Upstream of hbpS, the neighbouring senS and senR genes were identified. SenS is a sensor histidine kinase with five predicted N-terminally located transmembrane domains. SenR is the corresponding response regulator with a C-terminal DNA-binding motif. Comparative transcriptional and biochemical studies with a designed S. reticuli senS/senR chromosomal disruption mutant and a set of constructed Streptomyces lividans transformants showed that the presence of the novel two-component system SenS/SenR negatively modulates the expression of the furS–cpeB operon and the hbpS gene. The presence of SenS/SenR enhances considerably the resistance of S. reticuli to haemin and the redox-cycling compound plumbagin, suggesting that this system could participate directly or indirectly in the sensing of redox changes. Epitope-tagged HbpS (obtained from an Escherichia coli transformant) as well as the native S. reticuli HbpS interact in vitro specifically with the purified SenS fusion protein. On the basis of these findings, together with data deduced from the S. reticuli hbpS mutant strain, HbpS is suggested to act as an accessory protein that communicates with the sensor protein to modulate the corresponding regulatory cascade. Interestingly, close and distant homologues, respectively, of the SenS/SenR system are encoded within the Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) and Streptomyces avermitilis genomes, but not within other known bacterial genomes. Hence the SenS/SenR system appears to be confined to streptomycetes.


mBio ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rong Gao ◽  
Ann M. Stock

ABSTRACT Cells rely on accurate control of signaling systems to adapt to environmental perturbations. System deactivation upon stimulus removal is as important as activation of signaling pathways. The two-component system (TCS) is one of the major bacterial signaling schemes. In many TCSs, phosphatase activity of the histidine kinase (HK) is believed to play an essential role in shutting off the pathway and resetting the system to the prestimulus state. Two basic challenges are to understand the dynamic behavior of system deactivation and to quantitatively evaluate the role of phosphatase activity under natural cellular conditions. Here we report a kinetic analysis of the response to shutting off the archetype Escherichia coli PhoR-PhoB TCS pathway using both transcription reporter assays and in vivo phosphorylation analyses. Upon removal of the stimulus, the pathway is shut off by rapid dephosphorylation of the PhoB response regulator (RR) while PhoB-regulated gene products gradually reset to prestimulus levels through growth dilution. We developed an approach combining experimentation and modeling to assess in vivo kinetic parameters of the phosphatase activity with kinetic data from multiple phosphatase-diminished mutants. This enabled an estimation of the PhoR phosphatase activity in vivo , which is much stronger than the phosphatase activity of PhoR cytoplasmic domains analyzed in vitro . We quantitatively modeled how strong the phosphatase activity needs to be to suppress nonspecific phosphorylation in TCSs and discovered that strong phosphatase activity of PhoR is required for cross-phosphorylation suppression. IMPORTANCE Activation of TCSs has been extensively studied; however, the kinetics of shutting off TCS pathways is not well characterized. We present comprehensive analyses of the shutoff response for the PhoR-PhoB system that reveal the impact of phosphatase activity on shutoff kinetics. This allows development of a quantitative framework not only to characterize the phosphatase activity in the natural cellular environment but also to understand the requirement for specific strengths of phosphatase activity to suppress nonspecific phosphorylation. Our model suggests that the ratio of the phosphatase rate to the nonspecific phosphorylation rate correlates with TCS expression levels and the ratio of the RR to HK, which may contribute to the great diversity of enzyme levels and activities observed in different TCSs.


2009 ◽  
Vol 191 (13) ◽  
pp. 4383-4391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebeca Vidal ◽  
Luis López-Maury ◽  
Miguel G. Guerrero ◽  
Francisco J. Florencio

ABSTRACT The slr1192 (adhA) gene from Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803 encodes a member of the medium-chain alcohol dehydrogenase/reductase family. The gene product AdhA exhibits NADP-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase activity, acting on a broad variety of aromatic and aliphatic primary alcohols and aldehydes but not on secondary alcohols or ketones. It exhibits superior catalytic efficiency for aldehyde reduction compared to that for alcohol oxidation. The enzyme is a cytosolic protein present in photoautotrophically grown Synechocystis cells. The expression of AdhA is enhanced upon the exposure of cells to different environmental stresses, although it is not essential for survival even under such stress conditions. The induction of the expression of the adhA gene is dependent on the Hik34-Rre1 two-component system, as it is severely impaired in mutant strains lacking either the histidine kinase Hik34 or the response regulator Rre1. In vitro DNA-protein interaction analysis reveals that the response regulator Rre1 binds specifically to the promoter region of the adhA gene.


2001 ◽  
Vol 183 (20) ◽  
pp. 5870-5876 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcela Davalos-Garcia ◽  
Annie Conter ◽  
Isabelle Toesca ◽  
Claude Gutierrez ◽  
Kaymeuang Cam

ABSTRACT The Escherichia coli osmC gene encodes an envelope protein of unknown function whose expression depends on osmotic pressure and growth phase. The gene is transcribed from two overlapping promoters, osmCp 1 andosmCp 2. Several factors regulating these promoters have been reported. The leucine-responsive protein Lrp represses osmCp 1 and activatesosmCp 2, the nucleoid-associated protein H-NS represses both promoters, and the stationary-phase sigma factor ςs specifically recognizesosmCp 2. This work reports the identification of an additional regulatory element, the two-component systemrcsB-rcsC, affecting positively the distal promoter osmCp 1. The response regulator of the system, RcsB, does not affect expression of the proximal promoter osmCp 2. Deletion analysis located the site necessary for RcsB activation just upstream ofosmCp 1. In vitro transcription experiments and gel mobility shift assays demonstrated that RcsB stimulates RNA polymerase binding at osmCp 1.


2006 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 874-884 ◽  
Author(s):  
Smadar Shulami ◽  
Galia Zaide ◽  
Gennady Zolotnitsky ◽  
Yael Langut ◽  
Geoff Feld ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Geobacillus stearothermophilus T-6 utilizes an extensive and highly regulated hemicellulolytic system. The genes comprising the xylanolytic system are clustered in a 39.7-kb chromosomal segment. This segment contains a 6-kb transcriptional unit (xynDCEFG) coding for a potential two-component system (xynDC) and an ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transport system (xynEFG). The xynD promoter region contains a 16-bp inverted repeat resembling the operator site for the xylose repressor, XylR. XylR was found to bind specifically to this sequence, and binding was efficiently prevented in vitro in the presence of xylose. The ABC transport system was shown to comprise an operon of three genes (xynEFG) that is transcribed from its own promoter. The nonphosphorylated fused response regulator, His6-XynC, bound to a 220-bp fragment corresponding to the xynE operator. DNase I footprinting analysis showed four protected zones that cover the −53 and the +34 regions and revealed direct repeat sequences of a GAAA-like motif. In vitro transcriptional assays and quantitative reverse transcription-PCR demonstrated that xynE transcription is activated 140-fold in the presence of 1.5 μM XynC. The His6-tagged sugar-binding lipoprotein (XynE) of the ABC transporter interacted with different xylosaccharides, as demonstrated by isothermal titration calorimetry. The change in the heat capacity of binding (ΔC p) for XynE with xylotriose suggests a stacking interaction in the binding site that can be provided by a single Trp residue and a sugar moiety. Taken together, our data show that XynEFG constitutes an ABC transport system for xylo-oligosaccharides and that its transcription is negatively regulated by XylR and activated by the response regulator XynC, which is part of a two-component sensing system.


2006 ◽  
Vol 189 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simona Romagnoli ◽  
F. Robert Tabita

ABSTRACT The CbbRRS system is an atypical three-protein two-component system that modulates the expression of the cbb I CO2 fixation operon of Rhodopseudomonas palustris, possibly in response to a redox signal. It consists of a membrane-bound hybrid sensor kinase, CbbSR, with a transmitter and receiver domain, and two response regulator proteins, CbbRR1 and CbbRR2. No detectable helix-turn-helix DNA binding domain is associated with either response regulator, but an HPt domain and a second receiver domain are predicted at the C-terminal region of CbbRR1 and CbbRR2, respectively. The abundance of conserved residues predicted to participate in a His-Asp phosphorelay raised the question of their de facto involvement. In this study, the role of the multiple receiver domains was elucidated in vitro by generating site-directed mutants of the putative conserved residues. Distinct phosphorylation patterns were obtained with two truncated versions of the hybrid sensor kinase, CbbSRT189 and CbbSRR96 (CbbSR beginning at residues T189 and R96, respectively). These constructs also exhibited substantially different affinities for ATP and phosphorylation stability, which was found to be dependent on a conserved Asp residue (Asp-696) within the kinase receiver domain. Asp-696 also played an important role in defining the specificity of phosphorylation for response regulators CbbRR1 or CbbRR2, and this residue appeared to act in conjunction with residues within the region from Arg-96 to Thr-189 at the N terminus of the sensor kinase. The net effect of concerted interactions at these distinct regions of CbbSR created an internal molecular switch that appears to coordinate a unique branched phosphorelay system.


2004 ◽  
Vol 72 (6) ◽  
pp. 3489-3494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongshu Zhang ◽  
Yu Lei ◽  
Ali Khammanivong ◽  
Mark C. Herzberg

ABSTRACT Streptococcus gordonii is a pioneer colonizer of the teeth, contributing to the initiation of the oral biofilm called dental plaque. To identify genes that may be important in biofilm formation, a plasmid integration library of S. gordonii V288 was used. After screening for in vitro biofilm formation on polystyrene, a putative biofilm-defective mutant was isolated. In this mutant, pAK36 was inserted into a locus encoding a novel two-component system (bfr [biofilm formation related]) with two cotranscribed genes that form an operon. bfrA encodes a putative response regulator, while bfrB encodes a receptor histidine kinase. The bfr mutant and wild-type strain V288 showed similar growth rates in Todd-Hewitt broth (THB). A bfr-cat fusion strain was constructed. During growth in THB, the reporter activity (chloramphenicol acetyltransferase) was first detected in mid-log phase and reached a maximum in stationary phase, suggesting that transcription of bfr was growth stage dependent. After being harvested from THB, the bfr mutant adhered less effectively than did wild-type strain V288 to saliva-coated hydroxyapatite (sHA). To simulate pioneer colonization of teeth, S. gordonii V288 was incubated with sHA for 4 h in THB with 10% saliva to develop biofilms. RNA was isolated, and expression of bfrAB was estimated. In comparison to that of cells grown in suspension (free-growing cells), bfr mRNA expression by sessile cells on sHA was 1.8-fold greater and that by surrounding planktonic cells was 3.5-fold greater. Therefore, bfrAB is a novel two-component system regulated in association with S. gordonii biofilm formation in vitro.


Microbiology ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 149 (9) ◽  
pp. 2331-2343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thierry Doan ◽  
Pascale Servant ◽  
Shigeo Tojo ◽  
Hirotake Yamaguchi ◽  
Guillaume Lerondel ◽  
...  

A transcriptome comparison of a wild-type Bacillus subtilis strain growing under glycolytic or gluconeogenic conditions was performed. In particular, it revealed that the ywkA gene, one of the four paralogues putatively encoding a malic enzyme, was more transcribed during gluconeogenesis. Using a lacZ reporter fusion to the ywkA promoter, it was shown that ywkA was specifically induced by external malate and not subject to glucose catabolite repression. Northern analysis confirmed this expression pattern and demonstrated that ywkA is cotranscribed with the downstream ywkB gene. The ywkA gene product was purified and biochemical studies demonstrated its malic enzyme activity, which was 10-fold higher with NAD than with NADP (k cat/K m 102 and 10 s−1 mM−1, respectively). However, physiological tests with single and multiple mutant strains affected in ywkA and/or in ywkA paralogues showed that ywkA does not contribute to efficient utilization of malate for growth. Transposon mutagenesis allowed the identification of the uncharacterized YufL/YufM two-component system as being responsible for the control of ywkA expression. Genetic analysis and in vitro studies with purified YufM protein showed that YufM binds just upstream of ywkA promoter and activates ywkA transcription in response to the presence of malate in the extracellular medium, transmitted by YufL. ywkA and yufL/yufM could thus be renamed maeA for malic enzyme and malK/malR for malate kinase sensor/malate response regulator, respectively.


2014 ◽  
Vol 197 (5) ◽  
pp. 861-871 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumiko Kurabayashi ◽  
Yuko Hirakawa ◽  
Koichi Tanimoto ◽  
Haruyoshi Tomita ◽  
Hidetada Hirakawa

Particular interest in fosfomycin has resurfaced because it is a highly beneficial antibiotic for the treatment of refractory infectious diseases caused by pathogens that are resistant to other commonly used antibiotics. The biological cost to cells of resistance to fosfomycin because of chromosomal mutation is high. We previously found that a bacterial two-component system, CpxAR, induces fosfomycin tolerance in enterohemorrhagicEscherichia coli(EHEC) O157:H7. This mechanism does not rely on irreversible genetic modification and allows EHEC to relieve the fitness burden that results from fosfomycin resistance in the absence of fosfomycin. Here we show that another two-component system, TorSRT, which was originally characterized as a regulatory system for anaerobic respiration utilizing trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), also induces fosfomycin tolerance. Activation of the Tor regulatory pathway by overexpression oftorR, which encodes the response regulator, or addition of TMAO increased fosfomycin tolerance in EHEC. We also show that phosphorylated TorR directly represses the expression ofglpT, a gene that encodes a symporter of fosfomycin and glycerol-3-phosphate, and activation of the TorR protein results in the reduced uptake of fosfomycin by cells. However, cells in which the Tor pathway was activated had an impaired growth phenotype when cultured with glycerol-3-phosphate as a carbon substrate. These observations suggest that the TorSRT pathway is the second two-component system to reversibly control fosfomycin tolerance and glycerol-3-phosphate uptake in EHEC, and this may be beneficial for bacteria by alleviating the biological cost. We expect that this mechanism could be a potential target to enhance the utility of fosfomycin as chemotherapy against multidrug-resistant pathogens.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorena Novoa-Aponte ◽  
Fernando C. Soncini ◽  
José M. Argüello

ABSTRACTTwo component systems control periplasmic Cu+ homeostasis in Gram-negative bacteria. In characterized systems such as Escherichia coli CusRS, upon Cu+ binding to the periplasmic sensing domain of CusS, a cytoplasmic phosphotransfer domain phosphorylates the response regulator CusR. This drives the expression of efflux transporters, chaperones, and redox enzymes to ameliorate metal toxic effects. Here, we show that the Pseudomonas aeruginosa two component sensor histidine kinase CopS exhibits a Cu-dependent phosphatase activity that maintains a non-phosphorylated CopR when the periplasmic Cu levels are below its activation threshold. Upon Cu+ binding to the sensor, the phosphatase activity is blocked and the phosphorylated CopR activates transcription of the CopRS regulon. Supporting the model, mutagenesis experiments revealed that the ΔcopS strain showed constitutive high expression of the CopRS regulon, lower intracellular Cu+ levels, and larger Cu tolerance when compared to wild type cells. The invariant phospho-acceptor residue His235 of CopS was not required for the phosphatase activity itself, but necessary for its Cu-dependency. To sense the metal, the periplasmic domain of CopS binds two Cu+ ions at its dimeric interface. Homology modeling of CopS based on CusS structure (four Ag+ binding sites) clearly explains the different binding stoichiometries in both systems. Interestingly, CopS binds Cu+/2+ with 30 × 10−15 M affinities, pointing to the absence of free (hydrated) Cu+/2+ in the periplasm.IMPORTANCECopper is a micronutrient required as cofactor in redox enzymes. When free, copper is toxic, mismetallating proteins, and generating damaging free radicals. Consequently, copper overload is a strategy that eukaryotic cells use to combat pathogens. Bacteria have developed copper sensing transcription factors to control copper homeostasis. The cell envelope is the first compartment that has to cope with copper stress. Dedicated two component systems control the periplasmic response to metal overload. This manuscript shows that the copper sensing two component system present in Pseudomonadales exhibits a signal-dependent phosphatase activity controlling the activation of the response regulator, distinct from previously described periplasmic Cu sensors. Importantly, the data show that the sensor is activated by copper levels compatible with the absence of free copper in the cell periplasm. This emphasizes the diversity of molecular mechanisms that have evolved in various bacteria to manage the copper cellular distribution.


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