Pablo Tortosa

Sites of positive and negative regulation in the Bacillus subtilis antiterminators LicT and SacY

The Bacillus subtilis homologous transcriptional antiterminators LicT and SacY control the inducible expression of genes involved in aryl β‐glucoside and sucrose utilization respectively. Their RNA‐binding activity is carried by the N‐terminal domain (CAT), and is regulated by two similar C‐terminal domains (PRD1 and PRD2), which are the targets of phosphorylation reactions catalysed by the phosphoenolpyruvate: sugar phosphotransferase system (PTS). In the absence of the corresponding inducer, LicT is inactivated by BglP, the PTS permease (EII) specific for aryl β‐glucosides, and SacY by SacX, a negative regulator homologous to the EII specific for sucrose. LicT, but not SacY, is also subject to a positive control by the general PTS components EI and HPr, which are thought to phosphorylate LicT in the absence of carbon catabolite repression. Construction of SacY/LicT hybrids and mutational analysis enabled the location of the sites of this positive regulation at the two phosphorylatable His207 and His269 within LicT‐PRD2, and suggested that the presence of negative charges at these sites is sufficient for LicT activation in vivo. The BglP‐mediated inhibition process was found to essentially involve His100 of LicT‐PRD1, with His159 of the same domain playing a minor role in this regulation. In vitro experiments indicated that His100 could be phosphorylated directly by the general PTS proteins, this phosphorylation being stimulated by P∼BglP. We confirmed that, similarly, the corresponding conserved His99 residue in SacY is the major site of the negative control exerted by SacX on SacY activity. Thus, for both antiterminators, the EII‐mediated inhibition process seems to rely primarily on the presence of a negative charge at the first conserved histidine of the PRD1.

Massive infection of seabird ticks with bacterial species related to Coxiella burnetii.

ABSTRACT Seabird ticks are known reservoirs of bacterial pathogens of medical importance; however, ticks parasitizing tropical seabirds have received less attention than their counterparts from temperate and subpolar regions. Recently, Rickettsia africae was described to infect seabird ticks of the western Indian Ocean and New Caledonia, constituting the only available data on bacterial pathogens associated with tropical seabird tick species. Here, we combined a pyrosequencing-based approach with a classical molecular analysis targeting bacteria of potential medical importance in order to describe the bacterial community in two tropical seabird ticks, Amblyomma loculosum and Carios (Ornithodoros) capensis. We also investigated the patterns of prevalence and host specificity within the biogeographical context of the western Indian Ocean islands. The bacterial community of the two tick species was characterized by a strong dominance of Coxiella and Rickettsia. Our data support a strict Coxiella-host tick specificity, a pattern resembling the one found for Rickettsia spp. in the same two seabird tick species. Both the high prevalence and stringent host tick specificity suggest that these bacteria may be tick symbionts with probable vertical transmission. Detailed studies of the pathogenicity of these bacteria will now be required to determine whether horizontal transmission can occur and to clarify their status as potential human pathogens. More generally, our results show that the combination of next generation sequencing with targeted detection/genotyping approaches proves to be efficient in poorly investigated fields where research can be considered to be starting from scratch.

Leptospira and paramyxovirus infection dynamics in a bat maternity enlightens pathogen maintenance in wildlife.

Bats are reservoirs for several zoonotic pathogens of medical importance; however, infection dynamics of pathogens in wild bat populations remain poorly understood. Here, we examine the influence of host crowding and population age structure on pathogen transmission and diversity in bat populations. Focusing on two pathogen taxa of medical importance, Leptospira bacteria and paramyxoviruses, we monitored host population and pathogen shedding dynamics within a maternity colony of the tropical bat species Mormopterus francoismoutoui, endemic to Réunion Island. Our data reveal astonishingly similar infection dynamics for Leptospira and paramyxoviruses, with infection peaks during late pregnancy and 2 months after the initial birth pulse. Furthermore, although co-infection occurs frequently during the peaks of transmission, the patterns do not suggest any interaction between the two pathogens. Partial sequencing reveals a unique bat-specific Leptospira strain contrasting with the co-circulation of four separate paramyxovirus lineages along the whole breeding period. Patterns of infection highlight the importance of host crowding in pathogen transmission and suggest that most bats developed immune response and stop excreting pathogens. Our results support that bat maternity colonies may represent hot spots of transmission for bacterial and viral infectious agents, and highlight how seasonality can be an important determinant of host-parasite interactions and disease emergence.

A ribonucleic antiterminator sequence (RAT) and a distant palindrome are both involved in sucrose induction of the Bacillus subtilis sacXY regulatory operon

The Bacillus subtilis sacXY regulatory operon is involved in sucrose induction of the levansucrase sacB gene by an antitermination mechanism. In the presence of sucrose, the activated SacY antiterminator protein stabilizes the secondary structure of a ribonucleic antiterminator sequence (RAT) located in the leader region of the sacB transcript, and overlapping a rho-independent transcription terminator. Formation of the SacY-RAT complex prevents alternative formation of the terminator, allowing transcription of the downstream sequences. In the absence of sucrose, inhibition of SacY activity by SacX leads to termination of transcription. Expression of sacXY is also sucrose-inducible. This induction was previously shown to be mediated by SacY itself and/or SacT, another antiterminator involved in induction of genes belonging to a distinct sucrose pathway. These antiterminators are not activated at the same concentration of sucrose. We show here that sacXY induction occurs through activation of either SacY or SacT antiterminators, at their respective sucrose activation concentration. This result demonstrates a link between SacY- and SacT-mediated metabolic pathways. In addition, the sacXY leader region carries a RAT-like sequence, which however does not appear to overlap any apparent rho-independent transcription terminator. Site-directed mutagenesis experiments on this RAT-like sequence demonstrated its involvement in sucrose induction. Deletions generated in the sacXY leader region showed that a palindrome, located 100 nt downstream from the RAT-like sequence, also acts as a cis-acting element. Computer analysis of the leader RNA suggested that formation of the secondary structure of the RAT-like sequence and the palindrome could be mutually exclusive.

Pareto optimization in computational protein design with multiple objectives.

The optimization for function in computational design requires the treatment of, often competing, multiple objectives. Current algorithms reduce the problem to a single objective optimization problem, with the consequent loss of relevant solutions. We present a procedure, based on a variant of a Pareto algorithm, to optimize various competing objectives in protein design that allows reducing in several orders of magnitude the search of the solution space. Our methodology maintains the diversity of solutions and provides an iterative way to incorporate automatic design methods in the design of functional proteins. We have applied our systematic procedure to design enzymes optimized for both catalysis and stability. However, this methodology can be applied to any computational chemistry application requiring multi‐objective combinatorial optimization techniques.

Using multi-objective computational design to extend protein promiscuity

Many enzymes possess, besides their native function, additional promiscuous activities. Proteins with several activities (multipurpose catalysts) may have a wide range of biotechnological and biomedical applications. Natural promiscuity, however, appears to be of limited scope in this context, because the latent (promiscuous) function is often related to the evolved one (sharing the active site and even the chemical mechanism) and its enhancement upon suitable mutations usually brings about a decrease in the native activity. Here we explore the use of computational protein design to overcome these limitations. The high-plasticity positions close to the original (native) active-site are the most promising candidates for mutations that create a second active-site associated to a new function. To avoid compromising protein folding and native activity, we propose a minimal-perturbation approach based on the combinatorial optimization of, both the de novo catalytic activity and the folding free-energy: essentially, we construct the Pareto Set of optimal stability/promiscuous-function solutions. We validate our approach by introducing a promiscuous esterase activity in E. coli thioredoxin on the basis of mutations at positions close to the native-active-site disulfide-bridge. Native oxidoreductase activity is not compromised and it is, in fact, found to be 1.5-fold enhanced, as determined by an insulin-reduction assay. This work provides general guidelines as to how computational design can be used to expand the scope and applications of protein promiscuity. From a more general viewpoint, it illustrates the potential of multi-objective optimization as the computational analogue of multi-feature natural selection.

PROTDES: CHARMM toolbox for computational protein design

We present an open-source software able to automatically mutate any residue positions and find the best aminoacids in an arbitrary protein structure without requiring pairwise approximations. Our software, PROTDES, is based on CHARMM and it searches automatically for mutations optimizing a protein folding free energy. PROTDES allows the integration of molecular dynamics within the protein design. We have implemented an heuristic optimization algorithm that iteratively searches the best aminoacids and their conformations for an arbitrary set of positions within a structure. Our software allows CHARMM users to perform protein design calculations and to create their own procedures for protein design using their own energy functions. We show this by implementing three different energy functions based on different solvent treatments: surface area accessibility, generalized Born using molecular volume and an effective energy function. PROTDES, a tutorial, parameter sets, configuration tools and examples are freely available at http://soft.synth-bio.org/protdes.html.

Pushing the limits of automatic computational protein design: design, expression, and characterization of a large synthetic protein based on a fungal laccase scaffold

The de novo engineering of new proteins will allow the design of complex systems in synthetic biology. But the design of large proteins is very challenging due to the large combinatorial sequence space to be explored and the lack of a suitable selection system to guide the evolution and optimization. One way to approach this challenge is to use computational design methods based on the current crystallographic data and on molecular mechanics. We have used a laccase protein fold as a scaffold to design a new protein sequence that would adopt a 3D conformation in solution similar to a wild-type protein, the Trametes versicolor (TvL) fungal laccase. Laccases are multi-copper oxidases that find utility in a variety of industrial applications. The laccases with highest activity and redox potential are generally secreted fungal glycoproteins. Prokaryotic laccases have been identified with some desirable features, but they often exhibit low redox potentials. The designed sequence (DLac) shares a 50% sequence identity to the original TvL protein. The new DLac gene was overexpressed in E. coli and the majority of the protein was found in inclusion bodies. Both soluble protein and refolded insoluble protein were purified, and their identity was verified by mass spectrometry. Neither protein exhibited the characteristic T1 copper absorbance, neither bound copper by atomic absorption, and neither was active using a variety of laccase substrates over a range of pH values. Circular dichroism spectroscopy studies suggest that the DLac protein adopts a molten globule structure that is similar to the denatured and refolded native fungal TvL protein, which is significantly different from the natively secreted fungal protein. Taken together, these results indicate that the computationally designed DLac expressed in E. coli is unable to utilize the same folding pathway that is used in the expression of the parent TvL protein or the prokaryotic laccases. This sequence can be used going forward to help elucidate the sequence requirements needed for prokaryotic multi-copper oxidase expression.

Protein Design Based on Parallel Dimensional Reduction

The design of proteins with targeted properties is a computationally intensive task with large memory requirements. We have developed a novel approach that combines a dimensional reduction of the problem with a High Performance Computing platform to efficiently design large proteins. This tool overcomes the memory limits of the process, allowing the design of proteins whose requirements prevent them to be designed in traditional sequential platforms. We have applied our algorithm to the design of functional proteins, optimizing for both catalysis and stability. We have also studied the redesign of dimerization interfaces, taking simultaneously into account the stability of the subunits of the dimer. However, our methodology can be applied to any computational chemistry application requiring combinatorial optimization techniques.

Active Sites by Computational Protein Design

We have developed an automated method to design active sites into protein scaffolds using computational protein design techniques. We search through the amino acid sequence and conformation spaces by optimising protein stability and ligand binding. We use an all‐atom force field, a high‐ resolution protein structure and a rotamer library to model a protein’s unfolded and folded states. We enlarge a rotamer library by using a minimization procedure that optimizes rotamers to maximize intermolecular h‐bonds. We validate our methodology by re‐designing SH3‐domain proteins to bind a set of 64 peptides.