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Neisseria gonorrhoeae is an obligate human pathogen and the causative agent of the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea. The control of this disease has been compromised by the increasing proportion of infections due to antibiotic-resistant strains, which are growing at an alarming rate. N. gonorrhoeae MtrF is an integral membrane protein that belongs to the AbgT family of transporters for which no structural information is available. Here, we describe the crystal structure of MtrF, revealing a dimeric molecule with architecture distinct from all other families of transporters. MtrF is a bowl-shaped dimer with a solvent-filled basin extending from the cytoplasm to halfway across the membrane bilayer. Each subunit of the transporter contains nine transmembrane helices and two hairpins, posing a plausible pathway for substrate transport. A combination of the crystal structure and biochemical functional assays suggests that MtrF is an antibiotic efflux pump mediating bacterial resistance to sulfonamide antimetabolite drugs., (Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The Mmr multidrug efflux pump recognizes and actively extrudes a broad range of antimicrobial agents, and promotes the intrinsic resistance to these antimicrobials in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The expression of Mmr is controlled by the TetR-like transcriptional regulator Rv3066, whose open reading frame is located downstream of the mmr operon. To understand the structural basis of Rv3066 regulation, we have determined the crystal structures of Rv3066, both in the absence and presence of bound ethidium, revealing an asymmetric homodimeric two-domain molecule with an entirely helical architecture. The structures underscore the flexibility and plasticity of the regulator essential for multidrug recognition. Comparison of the apo-Rv3066 and Rv3066-ethidium crystal structures suggests that the conformational changes leading to drug-mediated derepression is primarily due to a rigid body rotational motion within the dimer interface of the regulator. The Rv3066 regulator creates a multidrug-binding pocket, which contains five aromatic residues. The bound ethidium is found buried within the multidrug-binding site, where extensive aromatic stacking interactions seemingly govern the binding. In vitro studies reveal that the dimeric Rv3066 regulator binds to a 14-bp palindromic inverted repeat sequence in the nanomolar range. These findings provide new insight into the mechanisms of ligand binding and Rv3066 regulation.

The transcriptional regulators of the TetR family act as chemical sensors to monitor the cellular environment in many bacterial species. To perform this function, members of the TetR family harbor a diverse ligand-binding domain capable of recognizing the same series of compounds as the transporters they regulate. Many of the regulators can be induced by a wide array of structurally unrelated compounds. Binding of these structurally unrelated ligands to the regulator results in a conformational change that is transmitted to the DNA-binding region, causing the repressor to lose its DNA-binding capacity and allowing for the initiation of transcription. The multi-drug binding proteins AcrR of Escherichia coli and CmeR from Campylobacter jejuni are members of the TetR family of transcriptional repressors that regulate the expression of the multidrug resistant efflux pumps AcrAB and CmeABC, respectively. To gain insights into the mechanisms of transcriptional regulation and how multiple ligands induce the same physiological response, we determined the crystal structures of the AcrR and CmeR regulatory proteins. In this review, we will summarize the new findings with AcrR and CmeR, and discuss the novel features of these two proteins in comparison with other regulators in the TetR family.

The Escherichia coli AcrR multidrug-binding protein represses transcription of acrAB and is induced by many structurally unrelated cytotoxic compounds. The crystal structure of AcrR in space group P222(1) has been reported previously. This P222(1) structure has provided direct information about the multidrug-binding site and important residues for drug recognition. Here, a crystal structure of this regulator in space group P3(1) is presented. Comparison of the two AcrR structures reveals possible mechanisms of ligand binding and AcrR regulation.

The AcrAB multidrug efflux pump, which belongs to the resistance nodulation division (RND) family, recognizes and extrudes a wide range of antibiotics and chemotherapeutic agents and causes the intrinsic antibiotic resistance in Escherichia coli. The expression of AcrAB is controlled by the transcriptional regulator AcrR, whose open reading frame is located 141 bp upstream of the acrAB operon. To understand the structural basis of AcrR regulation, we have determined the crystal structure of AcrR to 2.55-A resolution, revealing a dimeric two-domain molecule with an entirely helical architecture similar to members of the TetR family of transcriptional regulators. Each monomer of AcrR forms a multientrance pocket of 350 A(3) in the ligand-binding domain. The ligand-binding pocket is surrounded with mostly hydrophobic residues. In addition, a completely buried negatively charged glutamate, expected to be critical for drug binding, is located at the center of the binding pocket. The crystal structure provides novel insight into the mechanisms of ligand binding and AcrR regulation.

The Escherichia coli AcrR represses transcription of the acrB gene, which encodes the multidrug efflux pump AcrB that extrudes a wide variety of toxic compounds, by binding its target operator DNA. Fluorescence polarization was performed using purified, recombinant AcrR that contains a 6xHis tag at the C-terminus and a fluorescein-labeled 28-base pair oligonucleotide bearing a predicted palindrome (IR) operator sequence. Binding of AcrR to the predicted IR sequence occurred with a dissociation constant (K(D)) in the nanomolar range. Fluorescence polarization assays were also applied to characterize the affinity and specificity of AcrR interaction with three different fluorescent ligands, rhodamine 6G, ethidium, and proflavin. The K(D) values for these ligands range from 4.2 to 10.1 microM, suggesting that AcrR is capable of recognizing a wide range of structurally dissimilar toxic compounds as it is in the case of the AcrB multidrug efflux pump. We found that the binding of rhodamine 6G to AcrR is inhibited by the presence of ethidium. In contrast, the dissociation constant of proflavin binding to AcrR was not affected by ethidium, a result suggesting that ethidium and proflavin are bound to distinct binding sites.

This paper describes the cloning, expression, purification and preliminary X-ray data analysis of the AcrR regulatory protein. The Escherichia coli AcrR is a member of the TetR family of transcriptional regulators. It regulates the expression of the AcrAB multidrug transporter. Recombinant AcrR with a 6xHis tag at the C-terminus was expressed in E. coli and purified by metal-affinity chromatography. The protein was crystallized using hanging-drop vapor diffusion. X-ray diffraction data were collected from cryocooled crystals at a synchrotron light source. The best crystal diffracted to 2.5 A. The space group was determined to be P3(2), with unit-cell parameters a = b = 46.61, c = 166.16 A.