scholarly journals Assembly of Natively Synthesized Dual Chromophores Into Functional Actinorhodopsin

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimleng Chuon ◽  
So Young Kim ◽  
Seanghun Meas ◽  
Jin-gon Shim ◽  
Shin-Gyu Cho ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Energy ◽  
Biosynthetic Pathway ◽  
Proton Translocation ◽  
Functional Expression ◽  
Proton Pumping ◽  
Conversion Function ◽  
Bacterial Phyla ◽  
Energy Cycle ◽  
Freshwater Habitats ◽  
Microbial Rhodopsin

Microbial rhodopsin is a simple solar energy-capturing molecule compared to the complex photosynthesis apparatus. Light-driven proton pumping across the cell membrane is a crucial mechanism underlying microbial energy production. Actinobacteria is one of the highly abundant bacterial phyla in freshwater habitats, and members of this lineage are considered to boost heterotrophic growth via phototrophy, as indicated by the presence of actino-opsin (ActR) genes in their genome. However, it is difficult to validate their function under laboratory settings because Actinobacteria are not consistently cultivable. Based on the published genome sequence of Candidatus aquiluna sp. strain IMCC13023, actinorhodopsin from the strain (ActR-13023) was isolated and characterized in this study. Notably, ActR-13023 assembled with natively synthesized carotenoid/retinal (used as a dual chromophore) and functioned as a light-driven outward proton pump. The ActR-13023 gene and putative genes involved in the chromophore (retinal/carotenoid) biosynthetic pathway were detected in the genome, indicating the functional expression ActR-13023 under natural conditions for the utilization of solar energy for proton translocation. Heterologous expressed ActR-13023 exhibited maximum absorption at 565 nm with practical proton pumping ability. Purified ActR-13023 could be reconstituted with actinobacterial carotenoids for additional light-harvesting. The existence of actinorhodopsin and its chromophore synthesis machinery in Actinobacteria indicates the inherent photo-energy conversion function of this microorganism. The assembly of ActR-13023 to its synthesized chromophores validated the microbial community’s importance in the energy cycle.

scholarly journals Functional expression of the eukaryotic proton pump rhodopsin OmR2 in Escherichia coli and its photochemical characterization

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Masuzu Kikuchi ◽  
Keiichi Kojima ◽  
Shin Nakao ◽  
Susumu Yoshizawa ◽  
Shiho Kawanishi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Escherichia Coli ◽  
Proton Pump ◽  
Expression System ◽  
Spectroscopic Characterization ◽  
Functional Expression ◽  
Proton Pumping ◽  
E Coli ◽  
Oxyrrhis Marina ◽  
Domains Of Life

AbstractMicrobial rhodopsins are photoswitchable seven-transmembrane proteins that are widely distributed in three domains of life, archaea, bacteria and eukarya. Rhodopsins allow the transport of protons outwardly across the membrane and are indispensable for light-energy conversion in microorganisms. Archaeal and bacterial proton pump rhodopsins have been characterized using an Escherichia coli expression system because that enables the rapid production of large amounts of recombinant proteins, whereas no success has been reported for eukaryotic rhodopsins. Here, we report a phylogenetically distinct eukaryotic rhodopsin from the dinoflagellate Oxyrrhis marina (O. marina rhodopsin-2, OmR2) that can be expressed in E. coli cells. E. coli cells harboring the OmR2 gene showed an outward proton-pumping activity, indicating its functional expression. Spectroscopic characterization of the purified OmR2 protein revealed several features as follows: (1) an absorption maximum at 533 nm with all-trans retinal chromophore, (2) the possession of the deprotonated counterion (pKa = 3.0) of the protonated Schiff base and (3) a rapid photocycle through several distinct photointermediates. Those features are similar to those of known eukaryotic proton pump rhodopsins. Our successful characterization of OmR2 expressed in E. coli cells could build a basis for understanding and utilizing eukaryotic rhodopsins.

scholarly journals Mutation of a single residue in the ba3 oxidase specifically impairs protonation of the pump site

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (11) ◽  
pp. 3397-3402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph von Ballmoos ◽  
Nathalie Gonska ◽  
Peter Lachmann ◽  
Robert B. Gennis ◽  
Pia Ädelroth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electron Transfer ◽  
Time Constant ◽  
Thermus Thermophilus ◽  
Proton Translocation ◽  
Proton Pumping ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Structural Variant ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Membrane Bound ◽  
Proton Uptake

The ba3-type cytochrome c oxidase from Thermus thermophilus is a membrane-bound protein complex that couples electron transfer to O2 to proton translocation across the membrane. To elucidate the mechanism of the redox-driven proton pumping, we investigated the kinetics of electron and proton transfer in a structural variant of the ba3 oxidase where a putative “pump site” was modified by replacement of Asp372 by Ile. In this structural variant, proton pumping was uncoupled from internal electron transfer and O2 reduction. The results from our studies show that proton uptake to the pump site (time constant ∼65 μs in the wild-type cytochrome c oxidase) was impaired in the Asp372Ile variant. Furthermore, a reaction step that in the wild-type cytochrome c oxidase is linked to simultaneous proton uptake and release with a time constant of ∼1.2 ms was slowed to ∼8.4 ms, and in Asp372Ile was only associated with proton uptake to the catalytic site. These data identify reaction steps that are associated with protonation and deprotonation of the pump site, and point to the area around Asp372 as the location of this site in the ba3 cytochrome c oxidase.

scholarly journals Surprising Arginine Biosynthesis: a Reappraisal of the Enzymology and Evolution of the Pathway in Microorganisms

2007 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Xu ◽  
Bernard Labedan ◽  
Nicolas Glansdorff
Keyword(s):  
Biosynthetic Pathway ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Single Gene ◽  
Metabolic Function ◽  
Gene Products ◽  
Arginine Biosynthesis ◽  
Acetyl Coenzyme A ◽  
Bacterial Phyla ◽  
Acetyl Group ◽  
Acetylglutamate Synthase

SUMMARY Major aspects of the pathway of de novo arginine biosynthesis via acetylated intermediates in microorganisms must be revised in light of recent enzymatic and genomic investigations. The enzyme N-acetylglutamate synthase (NAGS), which used to be considered responsible for the first committed step of the pathway, is present in a limited number of bacterial phyla only and is absent from Archaea. In many Bacteria, shorter proteins related to the Gcn5-related N-acetyltransferase family appear to acetylate l-glutamate; some are clearly similar to the C-terminal, acetyl-coenzyme A (CoA) binding domain of classical NAGS, while others are more distantly related. Short NAGSs can be single gene products, as in Mycobacterium spp. and Thermus spp., or fused to the enzyme catalyzing the last step of the pathway (argininosuccinase), as in members of the Alteromonas-Vibrio group. How these proteins bind glutamate remains to be determined. In some Bacteria, a bifunctional ornithine acetyltransferase (i.e., using both acetylornithine and acetyl-CoA as donors of the acetyl group) accounts for glutamate acetylation. In many Archaea, the enzyme responsible for glutamate acetylation remains elusive, but possible connections with a novel lysine biosynthetic pathway arose recently from genomic investigations. In some Proteobacteria (notably Xanthomonadaceae) and Bacteroidetes, the carbamoylation step of the pathway appears to involve N-acetylornithine or N-succinylornithine rather than ornithine. The product N-acetylcitrulline is deacetylated by an enzyme that is also involved in the provision of ornithine from acetylornithine; this is an important metabolic function, as ornithine itself can become essential as a source of other metabolites. This review insists on the biochemical and evolutionary implications of these findings.

External alternative NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase redirected to the internal face of the mitochondrial inner membrane rescues complex I deficiency in Yarrowia lipolytica

2001 ◽  
Vol 114 (21) ◽  
pp. 3915-3921 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan J. Kerscher ◽  
Andrea Eschemann ◽  
Pamela M. Okun ◽  
Ulrich Brandt
Keyword(s):  
Yarrowia Lipolytica ◽  
Complex I ◽  
Functional Expression ◽  
Proton Pumping ◽  
Nadh:Ubiquinone Oxidoreductase ◽  
Inner Membrane ◽  
Mitochondrial Inner Membrane ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Cytosolic Side ◽  
Respiratory Membrane

Alternative NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductases are single subunit enzymes capable of transferring electrons from NADH to ubiquinone without contributing to the proton gradient across the respiratory membrane. The obligately aerobic yeast Yarrowia lipolytica has only one such enzyme, encoded by the NDH2 gene and located on the external face of the mitochondrial inner membrane. In sharp contrast to ndh2 deletions, deficiencies in nuclear genes for central subunits of proton pumping NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductases (complex I) are lethal. We have redirected NDH2 to the internal face of the mitochondrial inner membrane by N-terminally attaching the mitochondrial targeting sequence of NUAM, the largest subunit of complex I. Lethality of complex I mutations was rescued by the internal, but not the external version of alternative NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase. Internal NDH2 also permitted growth in the presence of complex I inhibitors such as 2-decyl-4-quinazolinyl amine (DQA). Functional expression of NDH2 on both sides of the mitochondrial inner membrane indicates that alternative NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase requires no additional components for catalytic activity. Our findings also demonstrate that shuttle mechanisms for the transfer of redox equivalents from the matrix to the cytosolic side of the mitochondrial inner membrane are insufficient in Y. lipolytica.

scholarly journals A unique clade of light-driven proton-pumping rhodopsins evolved in the cyanobacterial lineage

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Masumi Hasegawa ◽  
Toshiaki Hosaka ◽  
Keiichi Kojima ◽  
Yosuke Nishimura ◽  
Yu Nakajima ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Expression System ◽  
Genomic Analysis ◽  
Proton Pumping ◽  
Spectroscopic Characteristics ◽  
Light Utilization ◽  
Photochemical Properties ◽  
Microbial Rhodopsin ◽  
Unique Clade ◽  
Biased Distribution

Abstract Microbial rhodopsin is a photoreceptor protein found in various bacteria and archaea, and it is considered to be a light-utilization device unique to heterotrophs. Recent studies have shown that several cyanobacterial genomes also include genes that encode rhodopsins, indicating that these auxiliary light-utilizing proteins may have evolved within photoautotroph lineages. To explore this possibility, we performed a large-scale genomic survey to clarify the distribution of rhodopsin and its phylogeny. Our surveys revealed a novel rhodopsin clade, cyanorhodopsin (CyR), that is unique to cyanobacteria. Genomic analysis revealed that rhodopsin genes show a habitat-biased distribution in cyanobacterial taxa, and that the CyR clade is composed exclusively of non-marine cyanobacterial strains. Functional analysis using a heterologous expression system revealed that CyRs function as light-driven outward H+ pumps. Examination of the photochemical properties and crystal structure (2.65 Å resolution) of a representative CyR protein, N2098R from Calothrix sp. NIES-2098, revealed that the structure of the protein is very similar to that of other rhodopsins such as bacteriorhodopsin, but that its retinal configuration and spectroscopic characteristics (absorption maximum and photocycle) are distinct from those of bacteriorhodopsin. These results suggest that the CyR clade proteins evolved together with chlorophyll-based photosynthesis systems and may have been optimized for the cyanobacterial environment.

scholarly journals Isolation and functional expression of human COQ2, a gene encoding a polyprenyl transferase involved in the synthesis of CoQ

2004 ◽  
Vol 382 (2) ◽  
pp. 519-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margareta FORSGREN ◽  
Anneli ATTERSAND ◽  
Staffan LAKE ◽  
Jacob GRÜNLER ◽  
Ewa SWIEZEWSKA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biosynthetic Pathway ◽  
Functional Expression ◽  
Human Muscle ◽  
Null Mutant ◽  
Human Homologue ◽  
Gene Encoding ◽  
Reading Frame ◽  
Human Enzyme ◽  
Liver Cdna Library ◽  
Mutant Cells

The COQ2 gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae encodes a Coq2 (p-hydroxybenzoate:polyprenyl transferase), which is required in the biosynthetic pathway of CoQ (ubiquinone). This enzyme catalyses the prenylation of p-hydroxybenzoate with an all-trans polyprenyl group. We have isolated cDNA which we believe encodes the human homologue of COQ2 from a human muscle and liver cDNA library. The clone contained an open reading frame of length 1263 bp, which encodes a polypeptide that has sequence homology with the Coq2 homologues in yeast, bacteria and mammals. The human COQ2 gene, when expressed in yeast Coq2 null mutant cells, rescued the growth of this yeast strain in the absence of a non-fermentable carbon source and restored CoQ biosynthesis. However, the rate of CoQ biosynthesis in the rescued cells was lower when compared with that in cells rescued with the yeast COQ2 gene. CoQ formed when cells were incubated with labelled decaprenyl pyrophosphate and nonaprenyl pyrophosphate, showing that the human enzyme is active and that it participates in the biosynthesis of CoQ.

scholarly journals Five decades of research on mitochondrial NADH-quinone oxidoreductase (complex I)

2018 ◽  
Vol 399 (11) ◽  
pp. 1249-1264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomoko Ohnishi ◽  
S. Tsuyoshi Ohnishi ◽  
John C. Salerno
Keyword(s):  
Electron Transfer ◽  
Respiratory Chain ◽  
Complex I ◽  
Proton Translocation ◽  
Atp Synthesis ◽  
Mitochondrial Respiratory Chain ◽  
Proton Pumping ◽  
Entry Site ◽  
Quinone Oxidoreductase ◽  
Terminal Electron Acceptor

AbstractNADH-quinone oxidoreductase (complex I) is the largest and most complicated enzyme complex of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. It is the entry site into the respiratory chain for most of the reducing equivalents generated during metabolism, coupling electron transfer from NADH to quinone to proton translocation, which in turn drives ATP synthesis. Dysfunction of complex I is associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and it is proposed to be involved in aging. Complex I has one non-covalently bound FMN, eight to 10 iron-sulfur clusters, and protein-associated quinone molecules as electron transport components. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) has previously been the most informative technique, especially in membranein situanalysis. The structure of complex 1 has now been resolved from a number of species, but the mechanisms by which electron transfer is coupled to transmembrane proton pumping remains unresolved. Ubiquinone-10, the terminal electron acceptor of complex I, is detectable by EPR in its one electron reduced, semiquinone (SQ) state. In the aerobic steady state of respiration the semi-ubiquinone anion has been observed and studied in detail. Two distinct protein-associated fast and slow relaxing, SQ signals have been resolved which were designated SQNfand SQNs. This review covers a five decade personal journey through the field leading to a focus on the unresolved questions of the role of the SQ radicals and their possible part in proton pumping.

scholarly journals Potential Rhodopsin- and Bacteriochlorophyll-Based Dual Phototrophy in a High Arctic Glacier

mBio ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yonghui Zeng ◽  
Xihan Chen ◽  
Anne Mette Madsen ◽  
Athanasios Zervas ◽  
Tue Kjærgaard Nielsen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Energy ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Gene Clusters ◽  
High Arctic ◽  
Proton Pumping ◽  
The Other ◽  
Life Strategy ◽  
Metabolic Potential ◽  
Expression Control ◽  
Arctic Glacier

ABSTRACT Conserving additional energy from sunlight through bacteriochlorophyll (BChl)-based reaction center or proton-pumping rhodopsin is a highly successful life strategy in environmental bacteria. BChl and rhodopsin-based systems display contrasting characteristics in the size of coding operon, cost of biosynthesis, ease of expression control, and efficiency of energy production. This raises an intriguing question of whether a single bacterium has evolved the ability to perform these two types of phototrophy complementarily according to energy needs and environmental conditions. Here, we report four Tardiphaga sp. strains (Alphaproteobacteria) of monophyletic origin isolated from a high Arctic glacier in northeast Greenland (81.566° N, 16.363° W) that are at different evolutionary stages concerning phototrophy. Their >99.8% identical genomes contain footprints of horizontal operon transfer (HOT) of the complete gene clusters encoding BChl- and xanthorhodopsin (XR)-based dual phototrophy. Two strains possess only a complete XR operon, while the other two strains have both a photosynthesis gene cluster and an XR operon in their genomes. All XR operons are heavily surrounded by mobile genetic elements and are located close to a tRNA gene, strongly signaling that a HOT event of the XR operon has occurred recently. Mining public genome databases and our high Arctic glacial and soil metagenomes revealed that phylogenetically diverse bacteria have the metabolic potential of performing BChl- and rhodopsin-based dual phototrophy. Our data provide new insights on how bacteria cope with the harsh and energy-deficient environment in surface glacier, possibly by maximizing the capability of exploiting solar energy. IMPORTANCE Over the course of evolution for billions of years, bacteria that are capable of light-driven energy production have occupied every corner of surface Earth where sunlight can reach. Only two general biological systems have evolved in bacteria to be capable of net energy conservation via light harvesting: one is based on the pigment of (bacterio-)chlorophyll and the other is based on proton-pumping rhodopsin. There is emerging genomic evidence that these two rather different systems can coexist in a single bacterium to take advantage of their contrasting characteristics in the number of genes involved, biosynthesis cost, ease of expression control, and efficiency of energy production and thus enhance the capability of exploiting solar energy. Our data provide the first clear-cut evidence that such dual phototrophy potentially exists in glacial bacteria. Further public genome mining suggests this understudied dual phototrophic mechanism is possibly more common than our data alone suggested.

scholarly journals Microbial rhodopsins are major contributors to the solar energy captured in the sea

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. eaaw8855 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Gómez-Consarnau ◽  
John A. Raven ◽  
Naomi M. Levine ◽  
Lynda S. Cutter ◽  
Deli Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Energy ◽  
Atlantic Ocean ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Proton Pumping ◽  
Basal Metabolism ◽  
Energy Capture ◽  
Surface Ocean ◽  
Vertical Distributions ◽  
Energy Converting

All known phototrophic metabolisms on Earth rely on one of three categories of energy-converting pigments: chlorophyll-a (rarely -d), bacteriochlorophyll-a (rarely -b), and retinal, which is the chromophore in rhodopsins. While the significance of chlorophylls in solar energy capture has been studied for decades, the contribution of retinal-based phototrophy to this process remains largely unexplored. We report the first vertical distributions of the three energy-converting pigments measured along a contrasting nutrient gradient through the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The highest rhodopsin concentrations were observed above the deep chlorophyll-a maxima, and their geographical distribution tended to be inversely related to that of chlorophyll-a. We further show that proton-pumping proteorhodopsins potentially absorb as much light energy as chlorophyll-a–based phototrophy and that this energy is sufficient to sustain bacterial basal metabolism. This suggests that proteorhodopsins are a major energy-transducing mechanism to harvest solar energy in the surface ocean.

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