John N. Reeve

Gene structure, organization, and expression in archaebacteria.

Major advances have recently been made in understanding the molecular biology of the archaebacteria. In this review, we compare the structure of protein and stable RNA-encoding genes cloned and sequenced from each of the major classes of archaebacteria: the methanogens, extreme halophiles, and acid thermophiles. Protein-encoding genes, including some encoding proteins directly involved in methanogenesis and photoautotrophy, are analyzed on the basis of gene organization and structure, transcriptional control signals, codon usage, and evolutionary conservation. Stable RNA-encoding genes are compared for gene organization and structure, transcriptional signals, and processing events involved in RNA maturation, including intron removal. Comparisons of archaebacterial structures and regulatory systems are made with their eubacterial and eukaryotic homologs.

Archaeal chromatin and transcription

Archaea contain a variety of sequence‐independent DNA binding proteins consistent with the evolution of several different, sometimes overlapping and exchangeable solutions to the problem of genome compaction. Some of these proteins undergo residue‐specific post‐translational lysine acetylation or methylation, hinting at analogues of the histone modifications that regulate eukaryotic chromatin structure and transcription. Archaeal transcription initiation most closely resembles the eukaryotic RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) system, but Archaea do not appear to have homologues of the multisubunit complexes that remodel eukaryotic chromatin and activate RNAPII initiation. In contrast, they have sequence‐specific regulators that repress and perhaps activate archaeal transcription by mechanisms superficially similar to the bacterial paradigm of regulating promoter binding by RNAP. Repressors compete with archaeal TATA‐box binding protein (TBP) and TFB for the TATA‐box and TFB‐recognition elements (BRE) of the archaeal promoter, or with archaeal RNAP for the site of transcription initiation. Transcript‐specific regulation by repressors binding to sites of transcript initiation is consistent with such sites having very little sequence conservation. However, most Archaea have only one TBP and/or TFB that presumably must therefore bind to similar TATA‐box and BRE sequences upstream of most genes. Repressors that function by competing with TBP and/or TFB binding must therefore also make additional contacts with transcript‐specific regulatory sites adjacent or remote from the TATA‐box/BRE region. The fate of the archaeal TBP and TFB following transcription initiation remains to be determined. Based on functional homology with their eukaryotic RNAPII‐system counterparts, archaeal TBP and possibly also TFB should remain bound to the TATA‐box/BRE region after transcription initiation. However, this seems unlikely as it might limit repressor competition at this site to only the first round of transcription initiation.

Diversity of prokaryotic chromosomal proteins and the origin of the nucleosome.

Abstract. All cells employ architectural proteins to confine and organize their chromosomes, and to prevent the otherwise thermodynamically favored collapse of concentrated DNA into compact structures. To accomplish this, prokaryotes have evolved a variety of phylogenetically unrelated, small, basic, sequence-independent DNA-binding proteins that include histones in Euryarchaeota, and members of the HU family in many Bacteria. In contrast, virtually all Eukarya employ histones, and recently a metabolism-based hypothesis proposed that the eukaryal nucleus originated from a hydrogen-consuming, histone-containing Archaeon. Histones may have prevailed during the evolution of the Eukarya because of their extended interactions with DNA and, as noted, the histone fold now exists not only in histones but also as a structural motif in eukaryal transcription factors.

Shuttle Vector Expression in Thermococcus kodakaraensis: Contributions of cis Elements to Protein Synthesis in a Hyperthermophilic Archaeon

ABSTRACT Shuttle vectors that replicate stably and express selectable phenotypes in both Thermococcus kodakaraensis and Escherichia coli have been constructed. Plasmid pTN1 from Thermococcus nautilis was ligated to the commercial vector pCR2.1-TOPO, and selectable markers were added so that T. kodakaraensis transformants could be selected by ΔtrpE complementation and/or mevinolin resistance. Based on Western blot measurements, shuttle vector expression of RpoL-HA, a hemagglutinin (HA) epitope-tagged subunit of T. kodakaraensis RNA polymerase (RNAP), was ∼8-fold higher than chromosome expression. An idealized ribosome binding sequence (5′-AGGTGG) was incorporated for RpoL-HA expression, and changes to this sequence reduced expression. Changing the translation initiation codon from AUG to GUG did not reduce RpoL-HA expression, but replacing AUG with UUG dramatically reduced RpoL-HA synthesis. When functioning as translation initiation codons, AUG, GUG, and UUG all directed the incorporation of methionine as the N-terminal residue of RpoL-HA synthesized in T. kodakaraensis. Affinity purification confirmed that an HA- plus six-histidine-tagged RpoL subunit (RpoL-HA-his6) synthesized ectopically from a shuttle vector was assembled in vivo into RNAP holoenzymes that were active and could be purified directly from T. kodakaraensis cell lysates by Ni2+ binding and imidazole elution.

TFE, an Archaeal Transcription Factor in Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum Related to Eucaryal Transcription Factor TFIIEα

In the archaeon Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum, MTH1669 encodes a protein with a sequence related to the N-terminal sequences of the alpha-subunits of eucaryal general transcription factor TFIIE. The recombinant MTH1669 gene product has been purified and shown to stimulate transcription in vitro from M. thermoautotrophicum promoters that were almost inactive or much less active in reaction mixtures that contained only M. thermoautotrophicum RNA polymerase, TATA-binding protein and transcription factor B. As all complete archaeal genome sequences contain an MTH1669 homolog, the protein encoded by this gene is apparently the first characterized example of a transcription activator, here designated TFE, that may be universally present in the Archaea.

Affinity Purification of an Archaeal DNA Replication Protein Network

ABSTRACT Nineteen Thermococcus kodakarensis strains have been constructed, each of which synthesizes a different His6-tagged protein known or predicted to be a component of the archaeal DNA replication machinery. Using the His6-tagged proteins, stable complexes assembled in vivo have been isolated directly from clarified cell lysates and the T. kodakarensis proteins present have been identified by mass spectrometry. Based on the results obtained, a network of interactions among the archaeal replication proteins has been established that confirms previously documented and predicted interactions, provides experimental evidence for previously unrecognized interactions between proteins with known functions and with unknown functions, and establishes a firm experimental foundation for archaeal replication research. The proteins identified and their participation in archaeal DNA replication are discussed and related to their bacterial and eukaryotic counterparts. IMPORTANCE DNA replication is a central and essential event in all cell cycles. Historically, the biological world was divided into prokaryotes and eukaryotes, based on the absence or presence of a nuclear membrane, and many components of the DNA replication machinery have been identified and characterized as conserved or nonconserved in prokaryotic versus eukaryotic organisms. However, it is now known that there are two evolutionarily distinct prokaryotic domains, Bacteria and Archaea, and to date, most prokaryotic replication research has investigated bacterial replication. Here, we have taken advantage of recently developed genetic techniques to isolate and identify many proteins likely to be components of the archaeal DNA replication machinery. The results confirm and extend predictions from genome sequencing that the archaeal replication system is less complex but more closely related to a eukaryotic than to a bacterial replication system. DNA replication is a central and essential event in all cell cycles. Historically, the biological world was divided into prokaryotes and eukaryotes, based on the absence or presence of a nuclear membrane, and many components of the DNA replication machinery have been identified and characterized as conserved or nonconserved in prokaryotic versus eukaryotic organisms. However, it is now known that there are two evolutionarily distinct prokaryotic domains, Bacteria and Archaea, and to date, most prokaryotic replication research has investigated bacterial replication. Here, we have taken advantage of recently developed genetic techniques to isolate and identify many proteins likely to be components of the archaeal DNA replication machinery. The results confirm and extend predictions from genome sequencing that the archaeal replication system is less complex but more closely related to a eukaryotic than to a bacterial replication system.

Histones and nucleosomes in Archaea and Eukarya: a comparative analysis

Abstract Archaeal histones from mesophilic, thermophilic, and hyperthermophilic members of the Euryarchaeota have primary sequences, the histone fold, tertiary structures, and dimer formation in common with the eukaryal nucleosome core histones H2A, H2B, H3, and H4. Archaeal histones form nucleoprotein complexes in vitro and in vivo, designated archaeal nucleosomes, that contain histone tetramers and protect approximately 60 base pairs of DNA from nuclease digestion. Based on the sequence and structural homologies and experimental data reviewed here, archaeal nucleosomes appear similar, and may be homologous in evolutionary terms and function, to the structure at the center of the eukaryal nucleosome formed by the histone (H3+H4)2 tetramer.

Histones in Crenarchaea

Archaeal histone-encoding genes have been identified in marine Crenarchaea. The protein encoded by a representative of these genes, synthesized in vitro and expressed in Escherichia coli, binds DNA and forms complexes with properties typical of an archaeal histone. The discovery of histones in Crenarchaea supports the argument that histones evolved before the divergence of Archaea and Eukarya.

A novel DNA nuclease is stimulated by association with the GINS complex

Chromosomal DNA replication requires the spatial and temporal coordination of the activities of several complexes that constitute the replisome. A previously uncharacterized protein, encoded by TK1252 in the archaeon Thermococcus kodakaraensis, was shown to stably interact with the archaeal GINS complex in vivo, a central component of the archaeal replisome. Here, we document that this protein (TK1252p) is a processive, single-strand DNA-specific exonuclease that degrades DNA in the 5′ → 3′ direction. TK1252p binds specifically to the GINS15 subunit of T. kodakaraensis GINS complex and this interaction stimulates the exonuclease activity in vitro. This novel archaeal nuclease, designated GINS-associated nuclease (GAN), also forms a complex in vivo with the euryarchaeal-specific DNA polymerase D. Roles for GAN in replisome assembly and DNA replication are discussed.

Thermococcus kodakarensis Genetics: TK1827-Encoded β-Glycosidase, New Positive-Selection Protocol, and Targeted and Repetitive Deletion Technology

ABSTRACT Inactivation of TK1761, the reporter gene established for Thermococcus kodakarensis, revealed the presence of a second β-glycosidase that we have identified as the product of TK1827. This enzyme (pTK1827) has been purified and shown to hydrolyze glucopyranoside but not mannopyranoside, have optimal activity at 95°C and from pH 8 to 9.5, and have a functional half-life of ∼7 min at 100°C. To generate a strain with both TK1761 and TK1827 deleted, a new selection/counterselection protocol has been developed, and the levels of β-glycosidase activity in T. kodakarensis strains with TK1761 and/or TK1827 deleted and with these genes expressed from heterologous promoters are described. Genetic tools and strains have been developed that extend the use of this selection/counterselection procedure to delete any nonessential gene from the T. kodakarensis chromosome. Using this technology, TK0149 was deleted to obtain an agmatine auxotroph that grows on nutrient-rich medium only when agmatine is added. Transformants can therefore be selected rapidly, and replicating plasmids can be maintained in this strain growing in rich medium by complementation of the TK0149 deletion.