Cory Momany

Full-Length Structures of BenM and Two Variants Reveal Different Oligomerization Schemes for LysR-Type Transcriptional Regulators

BenM, a LysR-type transcriptional regulator (LTTR) from the bacterium Acinetobacter baylyi, responds synergistically to benzoate and cis,cis-muconate. With these effectors, BenM activates gene expression during benzoate consumption. Without effectors, BenM represses transcription. Here, X-ray crystallography was used to determine the full-length structures of BenM and two variants that activate transcription without benzoate or cis,cis-muconate: BenM(R156H) and BenM(E226K). Previous studies indicate that these regulators function as tetramers. Here, interconnections between subunits in the crystals prevented the formation of a closed oligomer and highlighted the inherent flexibility of this multidomain regulator. Nevertheless, analysis of subunit interfaces suggested the functional significance of key interactions. The structures of BenM and its variants were nearly identical, implying that transcriptional differences rely on factors beyond major conformational changes defined solely by sequence. Comparisons of BenM with other LTTRs, including unpublished structures in the Protein Data Bank, revealed extensive variation in the relative orientations of DNA-binding domains (DBDs) and effector-binding domains (EBDs). To form dimers, different LTTRs used similar interfaces between two EBDs, each containing two subdomains: EBD-I and EBD-II. Surprisingly, the dimers used three substantially different schemes to form higher-order oligomers. In one scheme used by BenM, oligomer assembly involved contacts between the EBD-II regions and the DBD regions of adjacent subunits. In another scheme, there were no contacts between the EBDs; only the DBDs were involved in tetramer formation. In the third scheme, the oligomer interface involved DBD and EBD-I/EBD-II contacts. These diverse schemes demonstrate novel variation in the oligomeric structures of individual LTTRs within this large and important family.

Mechanism of Hg-C protonolysis in the organomercurial lyase MerB.

Demethylation is a key reaction in global mercury cycling. The bacterial organomercurial lyase, MerB, catalyzes the demethylation of a wide range of organomercurials via Hg-C protonolysis. Two strictly conserved cysteine residues in the active site are required for catalysis, but the source of the catalytic proton and the detailed reaction mechanism have not been determined. Here, the two major proposed reaction mechanisms of MerB are investigated and compared using hybrid density functional theory calculations. A model of the active site was constructed from an X-ray crystal structure of the Hg(II)-bound MerB product complex. Stationary point structures and energies characterized for the Hg-C protonolysis of methylmercury rule out the direct protonation mechanism in which a cysteine residue delivers the catalytic proton directly to the organic leaving group. Instead, the calculations support a two-step mechanism in which Cys96 or Cys159 first donates a proton to Asp99, enabling coordination of two thiolates with R-Hg(II). At the rate-limiting transition state, Asp99 protonates the nascent carbanion in a trigonal planar, bis thiol-ligated R-Hg(II) species to cleave the Hg-C bond and release the hydrocarbon product. Reactions with two other substrates, vinylmercury and cis-2-butenyl-2-mercury, were also modeled, and the computed activation barriers for all three organomercurial substrates reproduce the trend in the experimentally observed enzymatic reaction rates. Analysis of atomic charges in the rate-limiting transition state structure using Natural Population Analysis shows that MerB lowers the activation free energy in the Hg-C protonolysis reaction by redistributing electron density into the leaving group and away from the catalytic proton.

Aspergillus nidulans swoF Encodes an N-Myristoyl Transferase

ABSTRACT Polar growth is a fundamental process in filamentous fungi and is necessary for disease initiation in many pathogenic systems. Previously, swoF was identified in Aspergillusnidulans as a single-locus, temperature-sensitive (ts) mutant aberrant in both polarity establishment and polarity maintenance. The swoF gene was cloned by complementation of the ts phenotype and sequenced. The derived protein sequence had high identity with N-myristoyl transferases (NMTs) found in fungi, plants, and animals. In addition, wild-type growth at restrictive temperature was partially restored by the addition of myristic acid to the growth medium. Sequencing revealed that the mutation in swoF changes the conserved aspartic acid 369 to a tyrosine. The predicted A. nidulans SwoF protein, SwoFp, was homology modeled based on crystal structures of NMTs from Saccharomycescerevisiae and Candidaalbicans. The D369Y swoF mutation is on the opposite face of the protein, distal to the myristoyl coenzyme A and peptide substrate binding sites. In wild-type NMTs, D369 appears to stabilize a structural β-strand bend through two hydrogen bonds and an ionic interaction. These stabilizing bonds are abolished in the D369Y mutant. We hypothesize that a substrate of SwoFp must be myristoylated for proper polarity establishment and maintenance. The mutation prevents the proper function of SwoFp at restrictive temperature and thus blocks polar growth.

Inducer responses of BenM, a LysR-type transcriptional regulator from Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1

BenM and CatM control transcription of a complex regulon for aromatic compound degradation. These Acinetobacter baylyi paralogues belong to the largest family of prokaryotic transcriptional regulators, the LysR‐type proteins. Whereas BenM activates transcription synergistically in response to two effectors, benzoate and cis,cis‐muconate, CatM responds only to cis,cis‐muconate. Here, site‐directed mutagenesis was used to determine the physiological significance of an unexpected benzoate‐binding pocket in BenM discovered during structural studies. Residues in BenM were changed to match those of CatM in this hydrophobic pocket. Two BenM residues, R160 and Y293, were found to mediate the response to benzoate. Additionally, alteration of these residues caused benzoate to inhibit activation by cis,cis‐muconate, positioned in a separate primary effector‐binding site of BenM. The location of the primary site, in an interdomain cleft, is conserved in diverse LysR‐type regulators. To improve understanding of this important family, additional regulatory mutants were analysed. The atomic‐level structures were characterized of the effector‐binding domains of variants that do not require inducers for activation, CatM(R156H) and BenM(R156H,T157S). These structures clearly resemble those of the wild‐type proteins in their activated muconate‐bound complexes. Amino acid replacements that enable activation without effectors reside at protein interfaces that may impact transcription through effects on oligomerization.

The benPK operon, proposed to play a role in transport, is part of a regulon for benzoate catabolism in Acinetobacter sp. strain ADP1.

BenM and CatM are distinct, but similar, LysR-type transcriptional regulators of the soil bacterium Acinetobacter sp. strain ADP1. Together, the two regulators control the expression of at least 14 genes involved in the degradation of aromatic compounds via the catechol branch of the beta-ketoadipate pathway. In these studies, BenM and CatM were each purified to homogeneity to test the possibility that they regulate the expression of two additional genes, benP and benK, that are adjacent to benM on the chromosome. Each regulator bound to a DNA fragment containing the benP promoter region. Additional transcriptional studies suggested that benP and benK are co-transcribed as an operon, and a site of transcription initiation was identified. Alignment of this initiation site with those of several CatM- and BenM-regulated genes revealed common regulatory motifs. Mutants lacking both CatM and BenM failed to activate benP transcription. The ability of each protein to regulate gene expression was inferred from strains lacking either CatM or BenM that were still capable of increasing benP expression in response to cis,cis-muconate. This compound has previously been shown to induce all enzymes of the catechol branch of the beta-ketoadipate pathway through a complex transcriptional circuit involving CatM and BenM. Thus, the regulated expression of the benPK operon in concert with other genes of the regulon is consistent with the model that BenP, a putative outer-membrane porin, and BenK, an inner-membrane permease, transport aromatic compounds in strain ADP1.

Oligomerization of BenM, a LysR‐type transcriptional regulator: structural basis for the aggregation of proteins in this family

LysR-type transcriptional regulators comprise the largest family of homologous regulatory DNA-binding proteins in bacteria. A problematic challenge in the crystallization of LysR-type regulators stems from the insolubility and precipitation difficulties encountered with high concentrations of the full-length versions of these proteins. A general oligomerization scheme is proposed for this protein family based on the structures of the effector-binding domain of BenM in two different space groups, P4(3)22 and C222(1). These structures used the same oligomerization scheme of dimer-dimer interactions as another LysR-type regulator, CbnR, the full-length structure of which is available [Muraoka et al. (2003), J. Mol. Biol. 328, 555-566]. Evaluation of packing relationships and surface features suggests that BenM can form infinite oligomeric arrays in crystals through these dimer-dimer interactions. By extrapolation to the liquid phase, such dimer-dimer interactions may contribute to the significant difficulty in crystallizing full-length members of this family. The oligomerization of dimeric units to form biologically important tetramers appears to leave unsatisfied oligomerization sites. Under conditions that favor association, such as neutral pH and concentrations appropriate for crystallization, higher order oligomerization could cause solubility problems with purified proteins. A detailed model by which BenM and other LysR-type transcriptional regulators may form these arrays is proposed.

Benzoate Decreases the Binding of cis,cis-Muconate to the BenM Regulator despite the Synergistic Effect of Both Compounds on Transcriptional Activation

Fluorescence emission spectroscopy was used to investigate interactions between two effectors and BenM, a transcriptional regulator of benzoate catabolism. BenM had a higher affinity for cis,cis-muconate than for benzoate as the sole effector. However, the presence of benzoate increased the apparent dissociation constant (reduced the affinity) of the protein for cis,cis-muconate. Similar results were obtained with truncated BenM lacking the DNA-binding domain. High-level transcriptional activation may require that some monomers within a BenM tetramer bind benzoate and others bind cis,cis-muconate.

Defying stereotypes: the elusive search for a universal model of LysR‐type regulation

LysR‐type transcriptional regulators (LTTRs) compose the largest family of homologous regulators in bacteria. Considering their prevalence, it is not surprising that LTTRs control diverse metabolic functions. Arguably, the most unexpected aspect of LTTRs is the paucity of available structural information. Solubility issues are notoriously problematic, and structural studies have only recently begun to flourish. In this issue of Molecular Microbiology, Taylor et al. (2012 ) present the structure of AphB, a LysR‐type regulator of virulence in Vibrio cholerae. This contribution adds significantly to the group of known full‐length atomic LTTR structures, which remains small. Importantly, this report also describes an active‐form variant. Small conformational changes in the effector‐binding domain translate to global reorganization of the DNA‐binding domain. Emerging from these results is a model of theme‐and‐variation among LTTRs rather than a unified regulatory scheme. Despite common structural folds, LTTRs exhibit differences in oligomerization, promoter recognition and communication with RNA polymerase. Such variation mirrors the diversity in sequence and function associated with members of this very large family.

Crystallization of the effector-binding domains of BenM and CatM, LysR-type transcriptional regulators from Acinetobacter sp. ADP1.

BenM, a member of the LysR-type family of transcriptional regulators, controls genes for benzoate degradation in the Gram-negative bacterium Acinetobacter sp. strain ADP1. Recent studies show that BenM activates benABCDE expression synergistically in response to two effector ligands: cis,cis-muconate (CCM) and benzoate. As an initial step in investigating the structural basis of dual effector response, the effector-binding domain of BenM (BenM-EBD) was crystallized by the microbatch-under-oil technique with conditions optimized from high-throughput screens performed by the Hauptman-Woodward Institute. Data-collection quality crystals of BenM-EBD belonged to space group P2(1)2(1)2(1), diffracted to 2.3 A and had unit-cell parameters a = 65.64, b = 66.34, c = 117.46 A. The influence of effector ligands on crystal formation was also evaluated. The presence of benzoate or CCM impaired the formation of crystals. The presence of both effectors together resulted in a dramatic decrease in the production of crystals. The effector-binding domain of CatM, a homolog of BenM, was also crystallized.

SwoHp, a nucleoside diphosphate kinase, is essential in Aspergillus nidulans.

ABSTRACT The temperature-sensitive swoH1 mutant of Aspergillus nidulans was previously identified in a screen for mutants with defects in polar growth. In the present work, we found that the swoH1 mutant swelled, lysed, and did not produce conidia during extended incubation at the restrictive temperature. When shifted from the permissive to the restrictive temperature, swoH1 showed the temperature-sensitive swelling phenotype only after 8 h at the higher temperature. The swoH gene was mapped to chromosome II and cloned by complementation of the temperature-sensitive phenotype. The sequence showed that swoH encodes a homologue of nucleoside diphosphate kinases (NDKs) from other organisms. Deletion experiments showed that the swoH gene is essential. A hemagglutinin-SwoHp fusion complemented the mutant phenotype, and the purified fusion protein possessed phosphate transferase activity in thin-layer chromatography assays. Sequencing of the mutant allele showed a predicted V83F change. Structural modeling suggested that the swoH1 mutation would lead to perturbation of the NDK active site. Crude cell extracts from the swoH1 mutant grown at the permissive temperature had ∼20% of the NDK activity seen in the wild type and did not show any decrease in activity when assayed at higher temperatures. Though the data are not conclusive, the lack of temperature-sensitive NDK activity in the swoH1 mutant raises the intriguing possibility that the SwoH NDK is required for growth at elevated temperatures rather than for polarity maintenance.