Shinya Sugimoto

Molecular Chaperones in Lactic Acid Bacteria: Physiological Consequences and Biochemical Properties

Recently, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have attracted much attention because of their potential application to probiotics and industrial applications as starters for dairy products or lactic acid fermentation. Additional emphasis is also being paid to them as commensal bacteria in gastrointestinal tract. Since LAB exhibit a stress response, insight into the relationship between stress proteins such as molecular chaperones and stress tolerance or adaptation is increasing gradually along with current research examining these important bacteria. Similar to other bacteria, one of the major stress-response systems in LAB is the expression of molecular chaperones. The recently completed genome sequencing of various LAB strains, combined with the development of advanced molecular techniques, have enabled us to identify molecular chaperones and to understand their regulation systems in response to various stresses. Furthermore, recent biochemical studies provided novel insight into the molecular mechanisms of LAB chaperone systems. This review highlights the physiological consequences and biochemical properties of molecular chaperones (especially sHsps, Hsp70, and Hsp100) in LAB and their use in biotechnological applications.

The proper ratio of GrpE to DnaK is important for protein quality control by the DnaK-DnaJ-GrpE chaperone system and for cell division

A balance of the intracellular concentrations of molecular chaperones in response to environmental conditions is of considerable importance for cellular homeostasis. Here, the physiological consequences of overexpression of GrpE in wild-type Escherichia coli MC4100 were examined. Overexpression of GrpE resulted in defects in cell division and growth, but overexpression of GrpE-G122D, which carries the G122D point mutation resulting in impaired interaction with DnaK, did not; this indicated that the effect of GrpE overexpression could be related to the DnaK chaperone function. Phase-contrast and fluorescence micrographs suggested that the N-terminal GFP-fused GrpE was colocalized with DnaK on the surface of inclusion bodies. An in vitro luciferase-refolding activity assay using purified DnaK, DnaJ and GrpE proteins demonstrated that high concentrations of GrpE significantly inhibited DnaK-mediated refolding. Furthermore, cell-free extracts from wild-type cells and GrpE-G122D-overexpressing cells significantly enhanced the refolding of luciferase. In the GrpE-overexpressing cells, abnormal localization of the cell-division protein FtsZ was observed by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy. In conclusion, the overexpression of GrpE caused a defect in the functionality of the DnaK chaperone system; this would result in filamentous morphology via abnormalities in the cell-division machinery.

A gram-negative characteristic segment in Escherichia coli DnaK is essential for the ATP-dependent cooperative function with the co-chaperones DnaJ and GrpE

We describe importance of the characteristic segment in ATPase domain of DnaK chaperone which is present in all gram‐negative bacteria but is absent in all gram‐positive bacteria. In vitro studies, ATPase activity, luciferase‐refolding activity, and surface plasmon resonance analyses, demonstrated that a segment‐deletion mutant DnaKΔ74‐96 became defective in the cooperation with the co‐chaperones DnaJ and GrpE. In addition, in vivo complementation assay showed that expression of DnaKΔ74‐96 could not rescue the viability of Escherichia coli ΔdnaK mutant at 43 °C. Consequently, we suggest evolutionary significance for this DnaK ATPase domain segment in gram‐negative bacteria towards the DnaK chaperone system.

Effect of heterologous expression of molecular chaperone DnaK from Tetragenococcus halophilus on salinity adaptation of Escherichia coli.

Molecular chaperone DnaK of halophilic Tetragenococcus halophilus JCM5888 was characterized under salinity conditions both in vitro and in vivo. The dnaK gene was cloned into an expression vector and transformed into Escherichia coli. The DnaK protein obtained from the recombinant E. coli showed a significantly higher refolding activity of denatured lactate dehydrogenase than that from non-halophilic Lactococcus lactis under NaCl concentrations higher than 1 M. E. coli without the overexpression of DnaK exhibited a growth profile with a prolonged lag phase and suppressed maximum cell density in Luria-Bertani medium containing 5% (0.86 M) NaCl. On the contrary, the overexpression of T. halophilus DnaK greatly shortened this prolonged lag phase with no effect on maximum growth, while that of L. lactis DnaK decreased maximum growth. The amount of protein aggregates was increased by salt stress in the E. coli cells, while this aggregation was greatly suppressed by the overexpression of T, halophilus DnaK. These results suggest that heterologous overexpression of T. halophilus DnaK, via its chaperone activity, promotes salinity adaptation of E. coli.

Molecular characterization and regulatory analysis of dnaK operon of halophilic lactic acid bacterium Tetragenococcus halophila

We have cloned and characterized the dnaK operon of Tetragenococcus halophila JCM5888. Nucleotide sequence analysis of cloned fragments showed that the dnaK operon consists of four open reading frames with the organization hrcA-grpE-dnaK-dnaJ. Two regulatory CIRCE (Controlling Inverted Repeat of Chaperone Expression) elements were identified in the region up-stream of hrcA. The T. halophila dnaK encoded a protein of 618 amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 67 kDa. The deduced amino acid sequence of T. halophila DnaK showed high similarities with those of the corresponding DnaK homologues of Lactococcus lactis, Lactobacillus sakei and Bacillus subtilis. Using a pET expression system, the T. halophila DnaK was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and the purified DnaK was found to exhibit ATPase and refolding activities. Northern hybridization analysis revealed that the transcription of the dnaK gene was induced by heat shock, and several transcripts were detected including a tetra-cistronic mRNA with a maximum size of 4.9-kb which corresponds to the transcript of the complete dnaK operon. The amount of dnaK transcripts increased about 3.5-fold at high NaCl concentration of 3-4 M, but not at the same KCl concentrations. These results suggest that the cloned DnaK acts as a functional molecular chaperone and plays an important role in salinity adaptation.

In Vivo and in Vitro Complementation Study Comparing the Function of DnaK Chaperone Systems from Halophilic Lactic Acid Bacterium Tetragenococcus halophilus and Escherichia coli

In this study, we characterized the DnaK chaperone system from Tetragenococcus halophilus, a halophilic lactic acid bacterium. An in vivo complementation test showed that under heat stress conditions, T. halophilus DnaK did not rescue the growth of the Escherichia coli dnaK deletion mutant, whereas T. halophilus DnaJ and GrpE complemented the corresponding mutations of E. coli. Purified T. halophilus DnaK showed intrinsic weak ATPase activity and holding chaperone activity in vitro, but T. halophilus DnaK did not cooperate with the purified DnaJ and GrpE from either T. halophilus or E. coli in ATP hydrolysis or luciferase-refolding reactions under the conditions tested. E. coli DnaK, however, cross-reacted with those from both bacteria. This difference in the cooperation with DnaJ and GrpE appears to result in an inability of T. halophilus DnaK to replace the in vivo function of the DnaK chaperone of E. coli.

Construction of Escherichia coli dnaK-deletion mutant infected by λDE3 for overexpression and purification of recombinant GrpE proteins

Escherichia coli is widely employed to produce recombinant proteins because this microorganism is simple to manipulate, inexpensive to culture, and of short duration to produce a recombinant protein. However, contamination of molecular chaperone DnaK during purification of the recombinant protein is sometimes a problem, since DnaK sometimes has a negative effect on subsequent experiments. Previously, several efforts have been done to remove the DnaK contaminants by several sequential chromatography or washing with some expensive chemicals such as ATP. Here, we developed a simple and inexpensive method to express and purify recombinant proteins based on an E. colidnaK-deletion mutant. The E. coli DeltadnaK52 mutant was infected by lambdaDE3 phage to overexpress desired recombinant proteins under the control of T7 promoter. Using this host cell, recombinant hexa histidine-tag fused GrpE, which is well known as a co-chaperone for DnaK and to strongly interact with DnaK, was overexpressed and purified by one-step nickel affinity chromatography. As a result, highly purified recombinant GrpE was obtained without washing with ATP. The purified recombinant GrpE showed a folded secondary structure and a dimeric structure as previous findings. In vitro ATPase activity assay and luciferase-refolding activity assay demonstrated that the recombinant GrpE worked together with DnaK. Thus, this developed method would be rapid and useful for expression and purification of recombinant proteins which is difficult to remove DnaK contaminants.

Author Correction: Norgestimate inhibits staphylococcal biofilm formation and resensitizes methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus to β-lactam antibiotics

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