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Phosphatidic acid (PA) is the precursor of most phospholipids like phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, and cardiolipin. In bacteria, its biosynthesis begins with the acylation of glycerol‐3‐phosphate to lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), which is further acylated to PA by the PlsC enzyme. Some bacteria, like the plant pathogen Xanthomonas campestris, use a similar pathway to acylate lysophosphatidylcholine to phosphatidylcholine (PC). Previous studies assigned two acyltransferases to PC formation. Here, we set out to study their activity and found a second much more prominent function of these enzymes in LPA to PA conversion. This PlsC‐like activity was supported by the functional complementation of a temperature‐sensitive plsC‐deficient Escherichia coli strain. Biocomputational analysis revealed two further PlsC homologs in X. campestris. The cellular levels of the four PlsC‐like proteins varied with respect to growth phase and growth temperature. To address the question whether these enzymes have redundant or specific functions, we purified two recombinant, detergent‐solubilized enzymes in their active form, which enabled the first direct biochemical comparison of PlsC isoenzymes from the same organism. Overlapping but not identical acyl acceptor and acyl donor preferences suggest redundant and specialized functions of the X. campestris PlsC enzymes. The altered fatty acid composition in plsC mutant strains further supports the functional differentiation of these enzymes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a plant pathogen, broadly known as the causal agent of the crown gall disease. The soil bacterium is naturally resistant to beta‐lactam antibiotics by utilizing the inducible beta‐lactamase AmpC. Our picture on the condition‐dependent regulation of ampC expression is incomplete. A known regulator is AmpR controlling the transcription of ampC in response to unrecycled muropeptides as a signal for cell wall stress. In our study, we uncovered the global transcriptional regulator LsrB as a critical player acting upstream of AmpR. Deletion of lsrB led to severe ampicillin and penicillin sensitivity, which could be restored to wild‐type levels by lsrB complementation. By transcriptome profiling via RNA‐Seq and qRT‐PCR and by electrophoretic mobility shift assays, we show that ampD coding for an anhydroamidase involved in peptidoglycan recycling is under direct negative control by LsrB. Controlling AmpD levels by the LysR‐type regulator in turn impacts the cytoplasmic concentration of cell wall degradation products and thereby the AmpR‐mediated regulation of ampC. Our results substantially expand the existing model of inducible beta‐lactam resistance in A. tumefaciens by establishing LsrB as higher‐level transcriptional regulator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pathogenic bacteria use outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) and highly adapted machineries like the type 3 secretion system (T3SS) to deliver virulence factors into host cells. The secretion of such effector proteins is tightly regulated. In the foodborne human pathogen Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, several thermo-responsive RNA elements, termed RNA thermometers, are strategically positioned at critical checkpoints of virulence regulation. They use a temperature-dependent, zipper-like mechanism to control translation initiation of genes for several T3SS components and an exotoxin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pathogenic bacteria, such as Yersinia pseudotuberculosis encounter reactive oxygen species (ROS) as one of the first lines of defense in the mammalian host. In return, the bacteria react by mounting an oxidative stress response. Previous global RNA structure probing studies provided evidence for temperature-modulated RNA structures in the 5'-untranslated region (5'-UTR) of various oxidative stress response transcripts, suggesting that opening of these RNA thermometer (RNAT) structures at host-body temperature relieves translational repression. Here, we systematically analyzed the transcriptional and translational regulation of ROS defense genes by RNA-sequencing, qRT-PCR, translational reporter gene fusions, enzymatic RNA structure probing and toeprinting assays. Transcription of four ROS defense genes was upregulated at 37°C. The trxA gene is transcribed into two mRNA isoforms, of which the most abundant short one contains a functional RNAT. Biochemical assays validated temperature-responsive RNAT-like structures in the 5'-UTRs of sodB, sodC and katA. However, they barely conferred translational repression in Y. pseudotuberculosis at 25°C suggesting partially open structures available to the ribosome in the living cell. Around the translation initiation region of katY we discovered a novel, highly efficient RNAT that was primarily responsible for massive induction of KatY at 37°C. By phenotypic characterization of catalase mutants and through fluorometric real-time measurements of the redox-sensitive roGFP2-Orp1 reporter in these strains, we revealed KatA as the primary H2O2 scavenger. Consistent with the upregulation of katY, we observed an improved protection of Y. pseudotuberculosis at 37°C. Our findings suggest a multilayered regulation of the oxidative stress response in Yersinia and an important role of RNAT-controlled katY expression at host body temperature. Author summary: The external conditions dramatically change when a bacterial pathogen enters a mammalian host. Sensing the new situation and rapidly responding to it is of critical importance for pathogens, like Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, since they often circulate between their environmental reservoirs and a warm-blooded host. Many virulence-related genes encode a temperature-sensitive mRNA element, a so-called RNA thermometer (RNAT), in the 5'-end of their transcript. Melting of this structure at 37°C allows ribosome binding and translation initiation. The host immune system typically fights microbial pathogens by the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Here, we find that several ROS defense genes in Yersinia are upregulated at host body temperature to counteract the ROS attack. In particular, the massive RNAT-mediated upregulation of the catalase KatY confers protection against H2O2 at 37°C. Our study reveals a close regulatory link between temperature sensing and the oxidative stress response in a notorious food borne pathogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outer membrane (OM) protects Gram-negative bacteria from harsh environmental conditions and provides intrinsic resistance to many antimicrobial compounds. The asymmetric OM is characterized by phospholipids in the inner leaflet and lipopolysaccharides (LPS) in the outer leaflet. Previous reports suggested an involvement of the signaling nucleotide ppGpp in cell envelope homeostasis in Escherichia coli. Here, we investigated the effect of ppGpp on OM biosynthesis. We found that ppGpp inhibits the activity of LpxA, the first enzyme of LPS biosynthesis, in a fluorometric in vitro assay. Moreover, overproduction of LpxA resulted in elongated cells and shedding of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) with altered LPS content. These effects were markedly stronger in a ppGpp-deficient background. We further show that RnhB, an RNase H isoenzyme, binds ppGpp, interacts with LpxA, and modulates its activity. Overall, our study uncovered new regulatory players in the early steps of LPS biosynthesis, an essential process with many implications in the physiology and susceptibility to antibiotics of Gram-negative commensals and pathogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outer membrane (OM) of Gram‐negative bacteria functions as an essential barrier and is characterized by an asymmetric bilayer with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the outer leaflet. The enzyme LpxC catalyzes the first committed step in LPS biosynthesis. It plays a critical role in maintaining the balance between LPS and phospholipids (PL), which are both derived from the same biosynthetic precursor. The essential inner membrane proteins YejM (PbgA, LapC), LapB (YciM), and the protease FtsH are known to account for optimal LpxC levels, but the mechanistic details are poorly understood. LapB is thought to be a bi‐functional protein serving as an adaptor for FtsH‐mediated turnover of LpxC and acting as a scaffold in the coordination of LPS biosynthesis. Here, we provide experimental evidence for the physical interaction of LapB with proteins at the biosynthetic node from where the LPS and PL biosynthesis pathways diverge. By a total of four in vivo and in vitro assays, we demonstrate protein–protein interactions between LapB and the LPS biosynthesis enzymes LpxA, LpxC, and LpxD, between LapB and YejM, the anti‐adaptor protein regulating LapB activity, and between LapB and FabZ, the first PL biosynthesis enzyme. Moreover, we uncovered a new adaptor function of LapB in destabilizing not only LpxC but also LpxD. Overall, our study shows that LapB is a multi‐functional protein that serves as a protein–protein interaction hub for key enzymes in LPS and PL biogenesis presumably by virtue of multiple tetratricopeptide repeat (TPR) motifs in its cytoplasmic C‐terminal region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molybdenum (Mo) is an important trace element that is toxic at high concentrations. To resolve the mechanisms underlying Mo toxicity, Rhodobacter capsulatus mutants tolerant to high Mo concentrations were isolated by random transposon Tn5 mutagenesis. The insertion sites of six independent isolates mapped within the same gene predicted to code for a permease of unknown function located in the cytoplasmic membrane. During growth under Mo-replete conditions, the wild-type strain accumulated considerably more Mo than the permease mutant. For mutants defective for the permease, the high-affinity molybdate importer ModABC, or both transporters, in vivo Mo-dependent nitrogenase (Mo-nitrogenase) activities at different Mo concentrations suggested that ModABC and the permease import molybdate in nanomolar and micromolar ranges, respectively. Like the permease mutants, a mutant defective for ATP sulfurylase tolerated high Mo concentrations, suggesting that ATP sulfurylase is the main target of Mo inhibition in R. capsulatus. Sulfate-dependent growth of a double mutant defective for the permease and the high-affinity sulfate importer CysTWA was reduced compared to those of the single mutants, implying that the permease plays an important role in sulfate uptake. In addition, permease mutants tolerated higher tungstate and vanadate concentrations than the wild type, suggesting that the permease acts as a general oxyanion importer. We propose to call this permease PerO (for oxyanion permease). It is the first reported bacterial molybdate transporter outside the ABC transporter family. doi: 10.1128/JB.00742-10

Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a Gram-negative plant-pathogenic bacterium that causes crown gall disease by transferring and integrating its transferred DNA (T-DNA) into the host genorne. We characterized the chromosomally encoded alpha-crystallin-type small heat-shock protein ([alpha]-Hsp) HspL, which was induced by the virulence (vir) gene inducer acetosyringone (AS). The transcription of hspL but not three other [alpha]-Hsp genes (hspC, hspAT1, hspAT2) was upregulated by AS. Further expression analysis in various vir mutants suggested that AS-induced hspL transcription is not directly activated by the VirG response regulator but rather depends on the expression of VirG-activated virB genes encoding components of the type IV secretion system (T4SS). Among the 11 virB genes encoded by the virB operon, HspL protein levels were reduced in strains with deletions of virB6, virB8 or virB11. VirB protein accumulation but not virB transcription levels were reduced in an hspL deletion mutant early after AS induction, implying that HspL may affect the stability of individual VirB proteins or of the T4S complex directly or indirectly. Tumorigenesis efficiency and the VirB/D4-rnediated conjugal transfer of an IncQ plasmid RSF1010 derivative between A. tumefaciens strains were reduced in the absence of HspL. In conclusion, increased HspL abundance is triggered in response to certain VirB protein(s) and plays a role in optimal VirB protein accumulation, VirB/D4-mediated DNA transfer and tumoriagenesis. DOI 10.1099/mic.0.030676-0

The phototrophic purple bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus encodes two transcriptional regulators, MopA and MopB, with partially overlapping and specific functions in molybdate-dependent gene regulation. Both MopA and MopB consist of an N-terminal DNA-binding helix-turn-helix domain and a C-terminal molybdate-binding di-MOP domain. They formed homodimers as apo-proteins and in the molybdate-bound state as shown by yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) studies, glutaraldehyde cross-linking, gel filtration chromatography, and copurification experiments. Y2H studies suggested that both the DNA-binding and the molybdate-binding domains contribute to dimer formation. Analysis of molybdate binding to MopA and MopB revealed a binding stoichiometry of four molybdate oxyanions per homodimer. Specific interaction partners of MopA and MopB were the molybdate transporter ATPase ModC and the molbindin-like Mop protein, respectively. Like other molbindins, the R. capsulatus Mop protein formed hexamers, which were stabilized by binding of six molybdate oxyanions per hexamer. Heteromer formation of MopA and MopB was shown by Y2H studies and copurification experiments. Reporter gene activity of a strictly MopA-dependent mop-lacZ fusion in mutant strains defective for either mopA, mopB, or both suggested that MopB negatively modulates expression of the mop promoter. We propose that depletion of the active MopA homodimer pool by formation of MopA-MopB heteromers might represent a fine-tuning mechanism controlling mop gene expression.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens requires phosphatidylcholine (PC) in its membranes for plant infection. The phospholipid N-methyltransferase PmtA catalyzes all three transmethylation reactions of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) to PC via the intermediates monomethylphosphatidylethanolamine (MMPE) and dimethylphosphatidylethanolamine (DMPE). The enzyme uses S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) as the methyl donor, converting it to S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH). Little is known about the activity of bacterial Pmt enzymes, since PC biosynthesis in prokaryotes is rare. In this article, we present the purification and in vitro characterization of A. tumefaciens PmtA, which is a monomeric protein. It binds to PE, the intermediates MMPE and DMPE, the end product PC, and phosphatidylglycerol (PG) and phosphatidylinositol. Binding of the phospholipid substrates precedes binding of SAM. We used a coupled in vitro assay system to demonstrate the enzymatic activity of PmtA and to show that PmtA is inhibited by the end products PC and SAH and the antibiotic sinefungin. The presence of PG stimulates PmtA activity. Our study provides insights into the catalysis and control of a bacterial phospholipid N-methyltransferase.

Phosphatidylcholine (PC), or lecithin, is the major phospholipid in eukaryotic membranes, whereas only 10% of all bacteria are predicted to synthesize PC. In Rhizobiaceae, including the phytopathogenic bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens, PC is essential for the establishment of a successful host-microbe interaction. A. tumefaciens produces PC via two alternative pathways, the methylation pathway and the Pcs pathway. The responsible genes, pmtA (coding for a phospholipid N-methyltransferase) and pcs (coding for a PC synthase), are located on the circular chromosome of A. tumefaciens C58. Recombinant expression of pmtA and pcs in Escherichia coli revealed that the individual proteins carry out the annotated enzyme functions. Both genes and a putative ABC transporter operon downstream of PC are constitutively expressed in A. tumefaciens. The amount of PC in A. tumefaciens membranes reaches around 23% of total membrane lipids. We show that PC is distributed in both the inner and outer membranes. Loss of PC results in reduced motility and increased biofilm formation, two processes known to be involved in virulence. Our work documents the critical importance of membrane lipid homeostasis for diverse cellular processes in A. tumefaciens.

It is well-established that neural networks can predict or identify structural motifs of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). Yet, the neural network based identification of RNA structural motifs is limited by the availability of training data that are often insufficient for learning features of specific ncRNA families or structural motifs. Aiming to reliably identify intrinsic transcription terminators in bacteria, we introduce a novel pre-training approach that uses inverse folding to generate training data for predicting or identifying a specific family or structural motif of ncRNA. We assess the ability of neural networks to identify secondary structure by systematic in silico mutagenesis experiments. In a study to identify intrinsic transcription terminators as functionally well-understood RNA structural motifs, our inverse folding based pre-training approach significantly boosts the performance of neural network topologies, which outperform previous approaches to identify intrinsic transcription terminators. Inverse-folding based pre-training provides a simple, yet highly effective way to integrate the well-established thermodynamic energy model into deep neural networks for identifying ncRNA families or motifs. The pre-training technique is broadly applicable to a range of network topologies as well as different types of ncRNA families and motifs. Author summary: Intrinsic transcriptional terminators are essential regulators in determining the 3' end of transcripts in bacteria. The underlying mechanism involves RNA secondary structure, where nucleotides fold into a specific hairpin motif. Identifying terminator sequences in bacterial genomes has conventionally been approached with well-established energy models for structural motifs. However, the folding mechanism of transcription terminators is understood only partially, limiting the success of energy-model based identification. Neural networks have been proposed to overcome these limitations. However, their adoption for predicting and identifying RNA secondary structure has been a double edged sword: Neural networks promise to learn features that are not represented by the energy models, while they are black boxes that lack explicit modeling assumptions and may fail to account for features that are well understandable based on decades-old energy models. Here, we introduce a pre-training approach for neural networks that uses energy-model based inverse folding of structural motifs. As we demonstrate, this approach "brings back the energy model" to identify transcriptional terminators and overcomes the limitations of previous energy-model based predictions. Our approach works for diverse types of neural networks, and is suitable for the identification of structural motifs of many other RNA molecules beyond transcriptional terminators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphatidylcholine (PC) is the major phospholipid in eukaryotic membranes. In contrast, it is found in only a few prokaryotes including members of the family Rhizobiaceae. In these bacteria, PC is required for pathogenic and symbiotic plant-microbe interactions, as shown for Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Bradyrhizobiumjaponicum. At least two different phospholipid N-methyltransferases (PmtA and PmtX) have been postulated to convert phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) to PC in B. japonicum by three consecutive methylation reactions. However, apart from the known PmtA enzyme, we identified and characterized three additional pmt genes (pmtX1, pmtX3, and pmtX4), which can be functionally expressed in Escherichia coli, showing different substrate specificities. B. japonicum expressed only two of these pmt genes (pmtA and pmtX1) under all conditions tested. PmtA predominantly converts PE to monomethyl PE, whereas PmtX1 carries out both subsequent methylation steps. B.japonicum is the first bacterium known to use two functionally different Pmts. It also expresses a PC synthase, which produces PC via condensation of CDP-diacylglycerol and choline. Our study shows that PC biosynthesis in bacteria can be much more complex than previously anticipated.

Rhodobacter capsulatus can efficiently grow with taurine as the sole sulfur source. The products of the tpa-tauR-xsc gene region are essential for this activity. TauR, a MocR-like member of the GntR superfamily of transcriptional regulators, activates tpa transcription, as shown by analysis of wild-type and tauR mutant strains carrying a tpa-lacZ reporter fusion. Activation of the tpa promoter requires taurine but is not inhibited by sulfate, which is the preferred sulfur source. TauR directly binds to the tpa promoter, as demonstrated by DNA mobility shift assays. As expected for a transcriptional activator, the TauR binding site is located upstream of the transcription start site, which has been determined by primer extension. Site-directed promoter mutations reveal that TauR binds to direct repeats, an unusual property that has to date been shown for only one other member of the MooR subfamily, namely, GabR from Bacillus subtilis. In contrast, all other members of the GntR family analyzed so far bind to inverted repeats.

The cellular level of the Escherichia coli heat-shock sigma factor RpoH ([[sigma].sup.32]) is negatively controlled by chaperone-mediated proteolysis through the essential metalloprotease FtsH. Point mutations in the highly conserved region 2.1 stabilize RpoH in vivo. To assess the importance of this turnover element, hybrid proteins were constructed between E. coli RpoH and Bradyrhizobium japonicum [RpoH.sub.1], a stable RpoH protein that differs from region 2.1 of E. coli RpoH at several positions. Nine amino acids forming a putative [alpha]-helix were exchanged between the two proteins. Both hybrids were active sigma factors and showed intermediate protein stability. Introduction of RpoH region 2.1 into the general stress sigma factor RpoS, which is a substrate of the ClpXP protease, did not render RpoS susceptible to FtsH. Hence, region 2.1 alone is not sufficient to confer FtsH sensitivity to other proteins. Region 2.1 is not a major chaperone-binding site since DnaK and DnaJ bound efficiently to all RpoH variants. The in vivo stability of the mutated RpoH proteins correlated with their stability in a purified in vitro degradation system, suggesting that region 2.1 might be directly involved in the interaction with the FtsH protease.

The phototrophic purple bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus encodes two similar but functionally not identical molybdenum-dependent regulator proteins (MopA and MopB), which are known to replace each other in repression of the modABC genes (coding for an ABC-type high-affinity Mo transport system) and anfA (coding for the transcriptional activator of Fe-nitrogenase genes). We identified further Mo-regulated (mor) genes coding for a putative ABC-type transport system of unknown function (MorABC) and a putative Mo-binding protein (Mop). The genes coding for MopA and the ModABC transporter form part of a single transcriptional unit, mopA-modABCD, as shown by reverse transcriptase PCR. Immediately upstream of mopA and transcribed in the opposite direction is mopB. The genes coding for the putative MorABC transporter belong to two divergently transcribed operons, morAB and morC. Expression studies based on lacZ reporter gene fusions in mutant strains defective for either MopA, MopB, or both revealed that the regulators substitute for each other in Mo-dependent repression of morAB and morC. Specific Mo-dependent activation of the mop gene by MopA, but not MopB, was found to control the putative Mo-binding protein. Both MopA and MopB are thought to bind to conserved DNA sequences with dyad symmetry in the promoter regions of all target genes. The positions of these so-called Mo boxes relative to the transcription start sites (as determined by primer extension analyses) differed between Mo-repressed genes and the Mo-activated mop gene. DNA mobility shift assays showed that MopA and MopB require molybdenum to bind to their target sites with high affinity.

Induction of the heat shock response in Escherichia coli requires the alternative sigma factor [[sigma].sup.32] (RpoH). The cellular concentration of [[sigma].sup.32] is controlled by proteolysis involving FtsH, other proteases, and the DnaKJ chaperone system. To identify individual [[sigma].sup.32] residues critical for degradation, we used a recently developed bacterial one-hybrid system and screened for stabilized versions of [[sigma].sup.32]. The five single point mutations that rendered the sigma factor more stable mapped to positions L47, A50, and I54 in region 2.1. Strains expressing the stabilized [[sigma].sup.32] variants exhibited elevated transcriptional activity, as determined by a groE-lacZ fusion. Structure calculations predicted that the three mutated residues line up on the same face of an [alpha]-helix in region 2.1, suggesting that they are positioned to interact with proteins of the degradation machinery.

Four genes coding for small heat shock proteins (sHsps) were identified in the genome sequence of Agrobacterium tumefaciens, one on the circular chromosome (hspC), one on the linear chromosome (hspL), and two on the pAT plasmid (hspAT1 and hspAT2). Induction of sHsps at elevated temperatures was revealed by immunoblot analyses. Primer extension experiments and translational lacZ fusions demonstrated that expression of the pAT-derived genes and hspL is controlled by temperature in a regulon-specific manner. While the sHsp gene on the linear chromosome turned out to be regulated by RpoH ([[sigma].sup.32]), both copies on pAT were under the control of highly conserved ROSE (named for repression of heat shock gene expression) sequences in their 5' untranslated region. Secondary structure predictions of the corresponding mRNA strongly suggest that it represses translation at low temperatures by masking the Shine-Dalgarno sequence. The hspC gene was barely expressed (if at all) and not temperature responsive.

The author surveys the publications on protein folding. The topics of interest include protein quality control principles in Escherichia coli and alpha-crystallin-type protein regulation, structure and function.

Research has been conducted on the bacteria regulate chaperone gene expression by CIRCE-HrcA system. The use of the complementation approach in Bradyrhizobium japonicum gene cloning is described.

A study concerning the cloning of ftsH gene of Bradyrhizobium japonicum is presented. Experiments have included the use of a set of degenerated oligonucleotides.