scholarly journals Green Fluorescent Chimeras Indicate Nonpolar Localization of Pullulanase Secreton Components PulL and PulM

2006 ◽  
Vol 188 (8) ◽  
pp. 2928-2935 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nienke Buddelmeijer ◽  
Olivera Francetic ◽  
Anthony P. Pugsley

ABSTRACT The Klebsiella oxytoca pullulanase secreton (type II secretion system) components PulM and PulL were tagged at their N termini with green fluorescent protein (GFP), and their subcellular location was examined by fluorescence microscopy and fractionation. When produced at moderate levels without other secreton components in Escherichia coli, both chimeras were envelope associated, as are the native proteins. Fluorescent GFP-PulM was evenly distributed over the cell envelope, with occasional brighter foci. Under the same conditions, GFP-PulL was barely detectable in the envelope by fluorescence microscopy. When produced together with all other secreton components, GFP-PulL exhibited circumferential fluorescence, with numerous brighter patches. The envelope-associated fluorescence of GFP-PulL was almost completely abolished when native PulL was also produced, suggesting that the chimera cannot compete with PulL for association with other secreton components. The patches of GFP-PulL might represent functional secretons, since GFP-PulM also appeared in similar patches. GFP-PulM and GFP-PulL both appeared in spherical polar foci when made at high levels. In K. oxytoca, GFP-PulM was evenly distributed over the cell envelope, with few patches, whereas GFP-PulL showed only weak envelope-associated fluorescence. These data suggest that, in contrast to their Vibrio cholerae Eps secreton counterparts (M. Scott, Z. Dossani, and M. Sandkvist, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98:13978-13983, 2001), PulM and PulL do not localize specifically to the cell poles and that the Pul secreton is distributed over the cell surface.

2008 ◽  
Vol 191 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nienke Buddelmeijer ◽  
Martin Krehenbrink ◽  
Frédéric Pecorari ◽  
Anthony P. Pugsley

ABSTRACT The cellular localization of a chimera formed by fusing a monomeric red fluorescent protein to the C terminus of the Klebsiella oxytoca type II secretion system outer membrane secretin PulD (PulD-mCherry) in Escherichia coli was determined in vivo by fluorescence microscopy. Like PulD, PulD-mCherry formed sodium dodecyl sulfate- and heat-resistant multimers and was functional in pullulanase secretion. Chromosome-encoded PulD-mCherry formed fluorescent foci on the periphery of the cell in the presence of high (plasmid-encoded) levels of its cognate chaperone, the pilotin PulS. Subcellular fractionation demonstrated that the chimera was located exclusively in the outer membrane under these circumstances. A similar localization pattern was observed by fluorescence microscopy of fixed cells treated with green fluorescent protein-tagged affitin, which binds with high affinity to an epitope in the N-terminal region of PulD. At lower levels of (chromosome-encoded) PulS, PulD-mCherry was less stable, was located mainly in the inner membrane, from which it could not be solubilized with urea, and did not induce the phage shock response, unlike PulD in the absence of PulS. The fluorescence pattern of PulD-mCherry under these conditions was similar to that observed when PulS levels were high. The complete absence of PulS caused the appearance of bright and almost exclusively polar fluorescent foci.


2009 ◽  
Vol 191 (9) ◽  
pp. 3149-3161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne R. Lybarger ◽  
Tanya L. Johnson ◽  
Miranda D. Gray ◽  
Aleksandra E. Sikora ◽  
Maria Sandkvist

ABSTRACT Secretion of cholera toxin and other virulence factors from Vibrio cholerae is mediated by the type II secretion (T2S) apparatus, a multiprotein complex composed of both inner and outer membrane proteins. To better understand the mechanism by which the T2S complex coordinates translocation of its substrates, we are examining the protein-protein interactions of its components, encoded by the extracellular protein secretion (eps) genes. In this study, we took a cell biological approach, observing the dynamics of fluorescently tagged EpsC and EpsM proteins in vivo. We report that the level and context of fluorescent protein fusion expression can have a bold effect on subcellular location and that chromosomal, intraoperon expression conditions are optimal for determining the intracellular locations of fusion proteins. Fluorescently tagged, chromosomally expressed EpsC and EpsM form discrete foci along the lengths of the cells, different from the polar localization for green fluorescent protein (GFP)-EpsM previously described, as the fusions are balanced with all their interacting partner proteins within the T2S complex. Additionally, we observed that fluorescent foci in both chromosomal GFP-EpsC- and GFP-EpsM-expressing strains disperse upon deletion of epsD, suggesting that EpsD is critical to the localization of EpsC and EpsM and perhaps their assembly into the T2S complex.


2011 ◽  
Vol 82 (6) ◽  
pp. 1422-1432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommaso Tosi ◽  
Nicholas N. Nickerson ◽  
Luca Mollica ◽  
Malene Ringkjøbing Jensen ◽  
Martin Blackledge ◽  
...  

2006 ◽  
Vol 189 (5) ◽  
pp. 1783-1793 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivera Francetic ◽  
Nienke Buddelmeijer ◽  
Shawn Lewenza ◽  
Carol A. Kumamoto ◽  
Anthony P. Pugsley

ABSTRACT The pseudopilin PulG is an essential component of the pullulanase-specific type II secretion system from Klebsiella oxytoca. PulG is the major subunit of a short, thin-filament pseudopilus, which presumably elongates and retracts in the periplasm, acting as a dynamic piston to promote pullulanase secretion. It has a signal sequence-like N-terminal segment that, according to studies with green and red fluorescent protein chimeras, anchors unassembled PulG in the inner membrane. We analyzed the early steps of PulG inner membrane targeting and insertion in Escherichia coli derivatives defective in different protein targeting and export factors. The β-galactosidase activity in strains producing a PulG-LacZ hybrid protein increased substantially when the dsbA, dsbB, or all sec genes tested except secB were compromised by mutations. To facilitate analysis of native PulG membrane insertion, a leader peptidase cleavage site was engineered downstream from the N-terminal transmembrane segment (PrePulG*). Unprocessed PrePulG* was detected in strains carrying mutations in secA, secY, secE, and secD genes, including some novel alleles of secY and secD. Furthermore, depletion of the Ffh component of the signal recognition particle (SRP) completely abolished PrePulG* processing, without affecting the Sec-dependent export of periplasmic MalE and RbsB proteins. Thus, PulG is cotranslationally targeted to the inner membrane Sec translocase by SRP.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debnath Ghosal ◽  
Ki Woo Kim ◽  
Huaixin Zheng ◽  
Mohammed Kaplan ◽  
Joseph P. Vogel ◽  
...  

AbstractThe type II secretion system (T2SS) is a multi-protein envelope-spanning assembly that translocates a wide range of virulence factors, enzymes and effectors through the outer membrane (OM) of many Gram-negative bacteria. Here, using electron cryotomography and subtomogram averaging methods, we present the first in situ structure of an intact T2SS, imaged within the human pathogen Legionella pneumophila. Although the T2SS has only limited sequence and component homology with the evolutionarily-related Type IV pilus (T4P) system, we show that their overall architectures are remarkably similar. Despite similarities, there are also differences, including for instance that the T2SS-ATPase complex is usually present but disengaged from the inner membrane, the T2SS has a much longer periplasmic vestibule, and it has a short-lived flexible pseudopilus. Placing atomic models of the components into our ECT map produced a complete architectural model of the intact T2SS that provides new insights into the structure and function of its components, its position within the cell envelope, and the interactions between its different subcomplexes. Overall, these structural results strongly support the piston model for substrate extrusion.


Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1377
Author(s):  
Adriano M. Gigante ◽  
Francisco Olivença ◽  
Maria João Catalão ◽  
Paula Leandro ◽  
José Moniz-Pereira ◽  
...  

Double-stranded DNA bacteriophages end their lytic cycle by disrupting the host cell envelope, which allows the release of the virion progeny. Each phage must synthesize lysis proteins that target each cell barrier to phage release. In addition to holins, which permeabilize the cytoplasmic membrane, and endolysins, which disrupt the peptidoglycan (PG), mycobacteriophages synthesize a specific lysis protein, LysB, capable of detaching the outer membrane from the complex cell wall of mycobacteria. The family of LysB proteins is highly diverse, with many members presenting an extended N-terminus. The N-terminal region of mycobacteriophage Ms6 LysB shows structural similarity to the PG-binding domain (PGBD) of the φKZ endolysin. A fusion of this region with enhanced green fluorescent protein (Ms6LysBPGBD-EGFP) was shown to bind to Mycobacterium smegmatis, Mycobacterium vaccae, Mycobacterium bovis BGC and Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra cells pretreated with SDS or Ms6 LysB. In pulldown assays, we demonstrate that Ms6 LysB and Ms6LysBPGBD-EGFP bind to purified peptidoglycan of M. smegmatis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis, demonstrating affinity to PG of the A1γ chemotype. An infection assay with an Ms6 mutant producing a truncated version of LysB lacking the first 90 amino acids resulted in an abrupt lysis. These results clearly demonstrate that the N-terminus of Ms6 LysB binds to the PG.


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