Andrew H. Gaspar

IsdG and IsdI, Heme-degrading Enzymes in the Cytoplasm of Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus aureus requires iron for growth and utilizes heme as a source of iron during infection. Staphylococcal surface proteins capture hemoglobin, release heme from hemoglobin and transport this compound across the cell wall envelope and plasma membrane into the bacterial cytoplasm. Here we show that Staphylococcus aureus isdG and isdI encode cytoplasmic proteins with heme binding properties. IsdG and IsdI cleave the tetrapyrrol ring structure of heme in the presence of NADPH cytochrome P450 reductase, thereby releasing iron. Further, IsdI complements the heme utilization deficiency of a Corynebacterium ulcerans heme oxygenase mutant, demonstrating in vivo activity of this enzyme. Although Staphylococcus epidermidis, Listeria monocytogenes, and Bacillus anthracis encode homologues of IsdG and IsdI, these proteins are not found in other bacteria or mammals. Thus, it appears that bacterial pathogens evolved different strategies to retrieve iron from scavenged heme molecules and that staphylococcal IsdG and IsdI represent examples of bacterial heme-oxygenases.

Assembly of Distinct Pilus Structures on the Surface of Corynebacterium diphtheriae

Different surface organelles contribute to specific interactions of a pathogen with host tissues or infectious partners. Multiple pilus gene clusters potentially encoding different surface structures have been identified in several gram-positive bacterial genomes sequenced to date, including actinomycetales, clostridia, corynebacteria, and streptococci. Corynebacterium diphtheriae has been shown to assemble a pilus structure, with sortase SrtA essential for the assembly of a major subunit SpaA and two minor proteins, SpaB and SpaC. We report here the characterization of a second pilus consisting of SpaD, SpaE, and SpaF, of which SpaD and SpaE form the pilus shaft and SpaF may be located at the pilus tip. The structure of the SpaDEF pilus contains no SpaABC pilins as detected by immunoelectron microscopy. Neither deletion of spaA nor sortase srtA abolishes SpaDEF pilus formation. The assembly of the SpaDEF pilus requires specific sortases located within the SpaDEF pilus gene cluster. Although either sortase SrtB or SrtC is sufficient to polymerize SpaDF, the incorporation of SpaE into the SpaD pili requires sortase SrtB. In addition, an alanine in place of the lysine of the SpaD pilin motif abrogates pilus polymerization. Thus, SpaD, SpaE, and SpaF constitute a different pilus structure that is independently assembled and morphologically distinct from the SpaABC pili and possibly other pili of C. diphtheriae.

Bacillus anthracis IsdG, a Heme-Degrading Monooxygenase

Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax, utilizes hemin and hemoglobin for growth in culture, suggesting that these host molecules serve as sources for the nutrient iron during bacterial infection. Bioinformatic analyses of the B. anthracis genome revealed genes with similarity to the iron-regulated surface determinant (isd) system responsible for heme uptake in Staphylococcus aureus. We show that the protein product of one of these genes, isdG, binds hemin in a manner resembling the heme binding of known heme oxygenases. Formation of IsdG:hemin complexes in the presence of a suitable electron donor, e.g., ascorbate or cytochrome P450 reductase, promotes catalytic degradation of hemin to biliverdin with concomitant release of iron. IsdG is required for B. anthracis utilization of hemin as a sole iron source, and it is also necessary for bacterial protection against heme-mediated toxicity. These data suggest that IsdG functions as a heme-degrading monooxygenase in B. anthracis.

Housekeeping sortase facilitates the cell wall anchoring of pilus polymers in Corynebacterium diphtheriae

Many surface proteins in Gram‐positive bacteria are covalently linked to the cell wall through a transpeptidation reaction catalysed by the enzyme sortase. Corynebacterium diphtheriae encodes six sortases, five of which are devoted to the assembly of three distinct types of pilus fibres – SrtA for the SpaA‐type pilus, SrtB/SrtC for the SpaD‐type pilus, and SrtD/SrtE for the SpaH‐type pilus. We demonstrate here the function of SrtF, the so‐called housekeeping sortase, in the cell wall anchoring of pili. We show that a multiple deletion mutant strain expressing only SrtA secretes a large portion of SpaA polymers into the culture medium, with concomitant decrease in the cell wall‐linked pili. The same phenotype is observed with the mutant that is missing SrtF alone. By contrast, a strain that expresses only SrtF displays surface‐linked pilins but no polymers. Therefore, SrtF can catalyse the cell wall anchoring of pilin monomers as well as pili, but it does not polymerize pilins. We show that SrtA and SrtF together generate wild‐type levels of the SpaA‐type pilus on the bacterial surface. Furthermore, by regulating the expression of SpaA in the cell, we demonstrate that the SrtF function becomes critical when the SpaA level is sufficiently high. Together, these findings provide key evidence for a two‐stage model of pilus assembly: pilins are first polymerized by a pilus‐specific sortase, and the resulting fibre is then attached to the cell wall by either the cognate sortase or the housekeeping sortase.

The Corynebacterium diphtheriae shaft pilin SpaA is built of tandem Ig-like modules with stabilizing isopeptide and disulfide bonds

Cell-surface pili are important virulence factors that enable bacterial pathogens to adhere to specific host tissues and modulate host immune response. Relatively little is known about the structure of Gram-positive bacterial pili, which are built by the sortase-catalyzed covalent crosslinking of individual pilin proteins. Here we report the 1.6-Å resolution crystal structure of the shaft pilin component SpaA from Corynebacterium diphtheriae, revealing both common and unique features. The SpaA pilin comprises 3 tandem Ig-like domains, with characteristic folds related to those typically found in non-pilus adhesins. Whereas both the middle and the C-terminal domains contain an intramolecular Lys–Asn isopeptide bond, previously detected in the shaft pilins of Streptococcus pyogenes and Bacillus cereus, the middle Ig-like domain also harbors a calcium ion, and the C-terminal domain contains a disulfide bond. By mass spectrometry, we show that the SpaA monomers are cross-linked in the assembled pili by a Lys–Thr isopeptide bond, as predicted by previous genetic studies. Together, our results reveal that despite profound dissimilarities in primary sequences, the shaft pilins of Gram-positive pathogens have strikingly similar tertiary structures, suggesting a modular backbone construction, including stabilizing intermolecular and intramolecular isopeptide bonds.

Bacillus anthracis Sortase A (SrtA) Anchors LPXTG Motif-Containing Surface Proteins to the Cell Wall Envelope

Cell wall-anchored surface proteins of gram-positive pathogens play important roles during the establishment of many infectious diseases, but the contributions of surface proteins to the pathogenesis of anthrax have not yet been revealed. Cell wall anchoring in Staphylococcus aureus occurs by a transpeptidation mechanism requiring surface proteins with C-terminal sorting signals as well as sortase enzymes. The genome sequence of Bacillus anthracis encodes three sortase genes and eleven surface proteins with different types of cell wall sorting signals. Purified B. anthracis sortase A cleaved peptides encompassing LPXTG motif-type sorting signals between the threonine (T) and the glycine (G) residues in vitro. Sortase A activity could be inhibited by thiol-reactive reagents, similar to staphylococcal sortases. B. anthracis parent strain Sterne 34F(2), but not variants lacking the srtA gene, anchored the collagen-binding MSCRAMM (microbial surface components recognizing adhesive matrix molecules) BasC (BA5258/BAS4884) to the bacterial cell wall. These results suggest that B. anthracis SrtA anchors surface proteins bearing LPXTG motif sorting signals to the cell wall envelope of vegetative bacilli.

Acyl Enzyme Intermediates in Sortase-Catalyzed Pilus Morphogenesis in Gram-Positive Bacteria

In gram-positive bacteria, covalently linked pilus polymers are assembled by a specific transpeptidase enzyme called pilus-specific sortase. This sortase is postulated to cleave the LPXTG motif of a pilin precursor between threonine and glycine and to form an acyl enzyme intermediate with the substrate. Pilus polymerization is believed to occur through the resolution of this intermediate upon specific nucleophilic attack by the conserved lysine located within the pilin motif of another pilin monomer, which joins two pilins with an isopeptide bond formed between threonine and lysine. Here, we present evidence for sortase reaction intermediates in Corynebacterium diphtheriae. We show that truncated SrtA mutants that are loosely bound to the cytoplasmic membrane form high-molecular-weight complexes with SpaA polymers secreted into the extracellular milieu. These complexes are not formed with SpaA pilin mutants that have alanine substitutions in place of threonine in the LPXTG motif or lysine in the pilin motif. The same phenotype is observed with alanine substitutions of either the conserved cysteine or histidine residue of SrtA known to be required for catalysis. Remarkably, the assembly of SpaA pili, or the formation of intermediates, is abolished with a SrtA mutant missing the membrane-anchoring domain. We infer that pilus polymerization involves the formation of covalent pilin-sortase intermediates, which occurs within a molecular platform on the exoplasmic face of the cytoplasmic membrane that brings together both sortase and its cognate substrates in close proximity to each other, likely surrounding a secretion apparatus. We present electron microscopic data in support of this picture.