scholarly journals The bacterial DNA binding protein MatP involved in linking the nucleoid terminal domain to the divisome at midcell interacts with lipid membranes

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Begoña Monterroso ◽  
Silvia Zorrilla ◽  
Marta Sobrinos-Sanguino ◽  
Miguel Ángel Robles-Ramos ◽  
Carlos Alfonso ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTDivision ring formation at midcell is controlled by various mechanisms inEscherichia coli, one of them being the linkage between the chromosomal Ter macrodomain and the Z-ring mediated by MatP, a DNA binding protein that organizes this macrodomain and contributes to the prevention of premature chromosome segregation. Here we show that, during cell division, just before splitting the daughter cells, MatP seems to localize close to the cytoplasmic membrane, suggesting that this protein might interact with lipids. To test this hypothesis, we investigated MatP interaction with lipidsin vitro. We found that MatP, when encapsulated inside microdroplets generated by microfluidics and giant vesicles, accumulates at phospholipid bilayers and monolayers matching the lipid composition in theE. coliinner membrane. MatP binding to lipids was independently confirmed using lipid coated microbeads and bio-layer interferometry assays. Interaction of MatP with the lipid membranes also occurs in the presence of the DNA sequences specifically targeted by the protein but there is no evidence of ternary membrane/protein/DNA complexes. We propose that the interaction of MatP with lipids may modulate its spatiotemporal localization and its recognition of other ligands.IMPORTANCEThe division of anE. colicell into two daughter cells with equal genomic information and similar size requires duplication and segregation of the chromosome and subsequent scission of the envelope by a protein ring, the Z-ring. MatP is a DNA binding protein that contributes both to the positioning of the Z-ring at midcell and the temporal control of nucleoid segregation. Our integratedin vivoandin vitroanalysis provides evidence that MatP can interact with lipid membranes comprising the phospholipid mixture in theE. coliinner membrane, without concomitant recruitment of the short DNA sequences specifically targeted by MatP. This observation strongly suggests that the membrane may play a role in the regulation of the function and localization of MatP, which could be relevant for the coordination of the two fundamental processes in which this protein participates, nucleoid segregation and cell division.

mBio ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Begoña Monterroso ◽  
Silvia Zorrilla ◽  
Marta Sobrinos-Sanguino ◽  
Miguel Ángel Robles-Ramos ◽  
Carlos Alfonso ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTDivision ring formation at midcell is controlled by various mechanisms inEscherichia coli, one of them being the linkage between the chromosomal Ter macrodomain and the Z-ring mediated by MatP, a DNA binding protein that organizes this macrodomain and contributes to the prevention of premature chromosome segregation. Here we show that, during cell division, just before splitting the daughter cells, MatP seems to localize close to the cytoplasmic membrane, suggesting that this protein might interact with lipids. To test this hypothesis, we investigated MatP interaction with lipidsin vitro. We found that, when encapsulated inside vesicles and microdroplets generated by microfluidics, MatP accumulates at phospholipid bilayers and monolayers matching the lipid composition in theE. coliinner membrane. MatP binding to lipids was independently confirmed using lipid-coated microbeads and biolayer interferometry assays, which suggested that the recognition is mainly hydrophobic. Interaction of MatP with the lipid membranes also occurs in the presence of the DNA sequences specifically targeted by the protein, but there is no evidence of ternary membrane/protein/DNA complexes. We propose that the association of MatP with lipids may modulate its spatiotemporal localization and its recognition of other ligands.IMPORTANCEThe division of anE. colicell into two daughter cells with equal genomic information and similar size requires duplication and segregation of the chromosome and subsequent scission of the envelope by a protein ring, the Z-ring. MatP is a DNA binding protein that contributes both to the positioning of the Z-ring at midcell and the temporal control of nucleoid segregation. Our integratedin vivoandin vitroanalysis provides evidence that MatP can interact with lipid membranes reproducing the phospholipid mixture in theE. coliinner membrane, without concomitant recruitment of the short DNA sequences specifically targeted by MatP. This observation strongly suggests that the membrane may play a role in the regulation of the function and localization of MatP, which could be relevant for the coordination of the two fundamental processes in which this protein participates, nucleoid segregation and cell division.


1995 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 1014-1020 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Lam

Light is an important environmental signal that can influence diverse developmental processes in plants. Many plant nuclear genes respond to light at the level of transcription initiation. GT-1 and GT2 are nuclear factors which interact with DNA sequences in many light-responsive gene promoters. cDNA clones which encode proteins with sequence binding specificities similar to those of these two factors have been isolated. They show significant amino acid sequence similarities within three closely spaced, putative alpha-helices that were predicted by secondary structure analysis but do not show significant homologies with any other reported DNA-binding protein. In this work, N- and C-terminal deletions of tobacco GT1a were generated by in vitro transcription and translation, and their DNA-binding activities and subunit structures were studied. The results suggest that the C-terminal domain of GT1a is critical for protein oligomerization, while a region predicted to contain four closely spaced alpha-helices is required for DNA binding. Direct chemical cross-linking and gel filtration analyses of full-length and truncated derivatives of GT1a suggest that this factor can exist in solution as a homotetramer and that oligomerization is independent of DNA binding. This study thus establishes two independent functional domains in this class of eukaryotic trans-acting factors. Possible implications of the multimeric nature of GT1a in relation to the known characteristics of light-responsive promoter architecture are discussed.


2007 ◽  
Vol 75 (11) ◽  
pp. 5509-5517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangchun Bai ◽  
Michaela A. Gazdik ◽  
Damen D. Schaak ◽  
Kathleen A. McDonough

ABSTRACT Mycobacterium tuberculosis Rv3676 encodes a cyclic AMP (cAMP) receptor-like protein (CRPMt) that has been implicated in global gene regulation and may play an important role during tuberculosis infection. The CRPMt ortholog in Mycobacterium bovis BCG, CRPBCG, is dysfunctional in an Escherichia coli CRP competition assay and has been proposed as a potential source of M. bovis BCG's attenuation. We compared CRPBCG and CRPMt in vitro and in vivo, in M. bovis BCG and M. tuberculosis, to evaluate CRPBCG's potential function in a mycobacterial system. Both proteins formed dimers in mycobacterial lysates, bound to the same target DNA sequences, and were similarly affected by the presence of cAMP in DNA binding assays. However, CRPMt and CRPBCG differed in their relative affinities for specific DNA target sequences and in their susceptibilities to protease digestion. Surprisingly, CRPBCG DNA binding activity was stronger than that of CRPMt both in vitro and in vivo, as measured by electrophoretic mobility shift and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. Nutrient starvation-associated regulation of several CRPMt regulon members also differed between M. bovis BCG and M. tuberculosis. We conclude that CRPBCG is a functional cAMP-responsive DNA binding protein with an in vivo DNA binding profile in M. bovis BCG similar to that of CRPMt in M. tuberculosis. However, biologically significant functional differences may exist between CRPBCG and CRPMt with respect to gene regulation, and this issue warrants further study.


1993 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6810-6818 ◽  
Author(s):  
X Y Zhang ◽  
N Jabrane-Ferrat ◽  
C K Asiedu ◽  
S Samac ◽  
B M Peterlin ◽  
...  

A mammalian protein called RFX or NF-X binds to the X box (or X1 box) in the promoters of a number of major histocompatibility (MHC) class II genes. In this study, RFX was shown to have the same DNA-binding specificity as methylated DNA-binding protein (MDBP), and its own cDNA was found to contain a binding site for MDBP in the leader region. MDBP is a ubiquitous mammalian protein that binds to certain DNA sequences preferentially when they are CpG methylated and to other related sequences, like the X box, irrespective of DNA methylation. MDBP from HeLa and Raji cells formed DNA-protein complexes with X-box oligonucleotides that coelectrophoresed with those containing standard MDBP sites. Furthermore, MDBP and X-box oligonucleotides cross-competed for the formation of these DNA-protein complexes. DNA-protein complexes obtained with MDBP sites displayed the same partial supershifting with an antiserum directed to the N terminus of RFX seen for complexes containing an X-box oligonucleotide. Also, the in vitro-transcribed-translated product of a recombinant RFX cDNA bound specifically to MDBP ligands and displayed the DNA methylation-dependent binding of MDBP. RFX therefore contains MDBP activity and thereby also EF-C, EP, and MIF activities that are indistinguishable from MDBP and that bind to methylation-independent sites in the transcriptional enhancers of polyomavirus and hepatitis B virus and to an intron of c-myc.


eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Hocher ◽  
Maria Rojec ◽  
Jacob B Swadling ◽  
Alexander Esin ◽  
Tobias Warnecke

Histones are a principal constituent of chromatin in eukaryotes and fundamental to our understanding of eukaryotic gene regulation. In archaea, histones are widespread but not universal: several lineages have lost histone genes. What prompted or facilitated these losses and how archaea without histones organize their chromatin remains largely unknown. Here, we elucidate primary chromatin architecture in an archaeon without histones, Thermoplasma acidophilum, which harbors a HU family protein (HTa) that protects part of the genome from micrococcal nuclease digestion. Charting HTa-based chromatin architecture in vitro, in vivo and in an HTa-expressing E. coli strain, we present evidence that HTa is an archaeal histone analog. HTa preferentially binds to GC-rich sequences, exhibits invariant positioning throughout the growth cycle, and shows archaeal histone-like oligomerization behavior. Our results suggest that HTa, a DNA-binding protein of bacterial origin, has converged onto an architectural role filled by histones in other archaea.


2020 ◽  
Vol 295 (51) ◽  
pp. 17770-17780
Author(s):  
Ikuko Hayashi

Bacterial low-copy-number plasmids require partition (par) systems to ensure their stable inheritance by daughter cells. In general, these systems consist of three components: a centromeric DNA sequence, a centromere-binding protein and a nucleotide hydrolase that polymerizes and functions as a motor. Type III systems, however, segregate plasmids using three proteins: the FtsZ/tubulin-like GTPase TubZ, the centromere-binding protein TubR and the MerR-like transcriptional regulator TubY. Although the TubZ filament is sufficient to transport the TubR-centromere complex in vitro, TubY is still necessary for the stable maintenance of the plasmid. TubY contains an N-terminal DNA-binding helix-turn-helix motif and a C-terminal coiled-coil followed by a cluster of lysine residues. This study determined the crystal structure of the C-terminal domain of TubY from the Bacillus cereus pXO1-like plasmid and showed that it forms a tetrameric parallel four-helix bundle that differs from the typical MerR family proteins with a dimeric anti-parallel coiled-coil. Biochemical analyses revealed that the C-terminal tail with the conserved lysine cluster helps TubY to stably associate with the TubR-centromere complex as well as to nonspecifically bind DNA. Furthermore, this C-terminal tail forms an amphipathic helix in the presence of lipids but must oligomerize to localize the protein to the membrane in vivo. Taken together, these data suggest that TubY is a component of the nucleoprotein complex within the partitioning machinery, and that lipid membranes act as mediators of type III systems.


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