scholarly journals Relationship between bacterial virulence and nucleotide metabolism: a mutation in the adenylate kinase gene renders Yersinia pestis avirulent

2003 ◽  
Vol 373 (2) ◽  
pp. 515-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hélène MUNIER-LEHMANN ◽  
Viviane CHENAL-FRANCISQUE ◽  
Mihaela IONESCU ◽  
Petya CHRISTOVA ◽  
Jeannine FOULON ◽  
...  

Nucleoside monophosphate kinases (NMPKs) are essential catalysts for bacterial growth and multiplication. These enzymes display high primary sequence identities among members of the family Enterobacteriaceae. Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague, belongs to this family. However, it was previously shown that its thymidylate kinase (TMPKyp) exhibits biochemical properties significantly different from those of its Escherichia coli counterpart [Chenal-Francisque, Tourneux, Carniel, Christova, Li de la Sierra, Barzu and Gilles (1999) Eur. J. Biochem. 265, 112–119]. In this work, the adenylate kinase (AK) of Y. pestis (AKyp) was characterized. As with TMPKyp, AKyp displayed a lower thermodynamic stability than other studied AKs. Two mutations in AK (Ser129→Phe and Pro87→Ser), previously shown to induce a thermosensitive growth defect in E. coli, were introduced into AKyp. The recombinant variants had a lower stability than wild-type AKyp and a higher susceptibility to proteolytic digestion. When the Pro87→Ser substitution was introduced into the chromosomal adk gene of Y. pestis, growth of the mutant strain was altered at the non-permissive temperature of 37 °C. In virulence testings, less than 50 colony forming units (CFU) of wild-type Y. pestis killed 100% of the mice upon subcutaneous infection, whereas bacterial loads as high as 1.5×104 CFU of the adk mutant were unable to kill any animals.

1989 ◽  
Vol 260 (2) ◽  
pp. 491-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Hederstedt ◽  
L O Hedén

Mammalian and Escherichia coli succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) and E. coli fumarate reductase apparently contain an essential cysteine residue at the active site, as shown by substrate-protectable inactivation with thiol-specific reagents. Bacillus subtilis SDH was found to be resistant to this type of reagent and contains an alanine residue at the amino acid position equivalent to the only invariant cysteine in the flavoprotein subunit of E. coli succinate oxidoreductases. Substitution of this alanine, at position 252 in the flavoprotein subunit of B. subtilis SDH, by cysteine resulted in an enzyme sensitive to thiol-specific reagents and protectable by substrate. Other biochemical properties of the redesigned SDH were similar to those of the wild-type enzyme. It is concluded that the invariant cysteine in the flavoprotein of E. coli succinate oxidoreductases corresponds to the active site thiol. However, this cysteine is most likely not essential for succinate oxidation and seemingly lacks an assignable specific function. An invariant arginine in juxtaposition to Ala-252 in the flavoprotein of B. subtilis SDH, and to the invariant cysteine in the E. coli homologous enzymes, is probably essential for substrate binding.


2006 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 1661-1666 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Deland Ho ◽  
Matthew K. Waldor

ABSTRACT Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC), especially E. coli O157:H7, is an emerging cause of food-borne illness. Unfortunately, E. coli O157 cannot be genetically manipulated using the generalized transducing phage P1, presumably because its extensive O antigen obscures the P1 receptor, the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) core subunit. The GalE, GalT, GalK, and GalU proteins are necessary for modifying galactose before it can be assembled into the repeating subunit of the O antigen. Here, we constructed E. coli O157:H7 gal mutants which presumably have little or no O antigen. These strains were able to adsorb P1. P1 lysates grown on the gal mutant strains could be used to move chromosomal markers between EHEC strains, thereby facilitating genetic manipulation of E. coli O157:H7. The gal mutants could easily be reverted to a wild-type Gal+ strain using P1 transduction. We found that the O157:H7 galETKM::aad-7 deletion strain was 500-fold less able to colonize the infant rabbit intestine than the isogenic Gal+ parent, although it displayed no growth defect in vitro. Furthermore, in vivo a Gal+ revertant of this mutant outcompeted the galETKM deletion strain to an extent similar to that of the wild type. This suggests that the O157 O antigen is an important intestinal colonization factor. Compared to the wild type, EHEC gal mutants were 100-fold more sensitive to a peptide derived from bactericidal permeability-increasing protein, a bactericidal protein found on the surface of intestinal epithelial cells. Thus, one way in which the O157 O antigen may contribute to EHEC intestinal colonization is to promote resistance to host-derived antimicrobial polypeptides.


2000 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 816-824 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhaohua Tang ◽  
Tiffany Kuo ◽  
Jenny Shen ◽  
Ren-Jang Lin

ABSTRACT Arginine/serine-rich (RS) domain-containing proteins and their phosphorylation by specific protein kinases constitute control circuits to regulate pre-mRNA splicing and coordinate splicing with transcription in mammalian cells. We present here the finding that similar SR networks exist in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. We previously showed that Dsk1 protein, originally described as a mitotic regulator, displays high activity in phosphorylating S. pombe Prp2 protein (spU2AF59), a homologue of human U2AF65. We now demonstrate that Dsk1 also phosphorylates two recently identified fission yeast proteins with RS repeats, Srp1 and Srp2, in vitro. The phosphorylated proteins bear the same phosphoepitope found in mammalian SR proteins. Consistent with its substrate specificity, Dsk1 forms kinase-competent complexes with those proteins. Furthermore,dsk1 + gene determines the phenotype ofprp2 + overexpression, providing in vivo evidence that Prp2 is a target for Dsk1. The dsk1-null mutant strain became severely sick with the additional deletion of a related kinase gene. Significantly, human SR protein-specific kinase 1 (SRPK1) complements the growth defect of the double-deletion mutant. In conjunction with the resemblance of dsk1 + andSRPK1 in sequence homology, biochemical properties, and overexpression phenotypes, the complementation result indicates that SRPK1 is a functional homologue of Dsk1. Collectively, our studies illustrate the conserved SR networks in S. pombe consisting of RS domain-containing proteins and SR protein-specific kinases and thus establish the importance of the networks in eucaryotic organisms.


1989 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 2715-2723
Author(s):  
M D Baroni ◽  
E Martegani ◽  
P Monti ◽  
L Alberghina

A detailed kinetic analysis of the cell cycle of cdc25-1, RAS2Val-19, or cdc25-1/RAS2Val-19 mutants during exponential growth is presented. At the permissive temperature (24 degrees C), cdc25-1 cells show a longer G1/unbudded phase of the cell cycle and have a smaller critical cell size required for budding without changing the growth rate in comparison to an isogenic wild type. The RAS2Val-19 mutation efficiently suppresses the ts growth defect of the cdc25-1 mutant at 36 degrees C and the increase of G1 phase at 24 degrees C. Moreover, it causes a marked increase of the critical cell mass required to enter into a new cell division cycle compared with that of the wild type. Since the critical cell mass is physiologically modulated by nutritional conditions, we have also studied the behavior of these mutants in different media. The increase in cell size caused by the RAS2Val-19 mutation is evident in all tested growth conditions, while the effect of cdc25-1 is apparently more pronounced in rich culture media. CDC25 and RAS2 gene products have been showed to control cell growth by regulating the cyclic AMP metabolic pathway. Experimental evidence reported herein suggests that the modulation of the critical cell size by CDC25 and RAS2 may involve adenylate cyclase.


1991 ◽  
Vol 273 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
I Bock-Möbius ◽  
M Brune ◽  
A Wittinghofer ◽  
H Zimmermann ◽  
R Leberman ◽  
...  

Adenylate kinase from two types of Escherichia coli strains, a wild-type and a leucine-auxotrophic strain, was purified. On the one hand, growing the leucine-auxotrophic bacteria on a medium containing deuterated leucine yielded E. coli adenylate kinase with all leucine residues deuterated. On the other hand, by growing the wild-type bacteria on deuterated medium with phenylalanine, threonine and isoleucine present as protonated specimens, 80% randomly deuterated enzyme with protonated phenylalanine, threonine and isoleucine residues could be prepared. Use of these proteins enabled identification of the spin systems of these amino acid residues in the n.m.r. spectra of the protein.


2003 ◽  
Vol 185 (3) ◽  
pp. 843-853 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Karin Pernestig ◽  
Dimitris Georgellis ◽  
Tony Romeo ◽  
Kazushi Suzuki ◽  
Henrik Tomenius ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The Escherichia coli BarA and UvrY proteins were recently demonstrated to constitute a novel two-component system, although its function has remained largely elusive. Here we show that mutations in the sensor kinase gene, barA, or the response regulator gene, uvrY, in uropathogenic E. coli drastically affect survival in long-term competition cultures. Using media with gluconeogenic carbon sources, the mutants have a clear growth advantage when competing with the wild type, but using media with carbon sources feeding into the glycolysis leads to a clear growth advantage for the wild type. Results from competitions with mutants in the carbon storage regulation system, CsrA/B, known to be a master switch between glycolysis and gluconeogenesis, led us to propose that the BarA-UvrY two-component system controls the Csr system. Taking these results together, we propose the BarA-UvrY two-component system is crucial for efficient adaptation between different metabolic pathways, an essential function for adaptation to a new environment.


ADMET & DMPK ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Mihaela Ileana Ionescu

<p class="ADMETabstracttext">Due to its crucial role in nucleotide metabolism, adenylate kinase deserves a special attention in screening of potential inhibitors. Herein, we report the assessment of the relative orientation of the ligand 2,4-thiazolidinedione to adenylate kinase crystallized in closed conformation. Protein-ligand docking was performed to estimate the binding energy and inhibition constant of 2,4-thiazolidinedione to the adenylate kinases’ active sites from different organisms. Our results revealed the best orientation of 2,4-thiazolidinedione is with Gram-positive and acid fast bacteria adenylate kinase – K<sub>i</sub> = 0.76±0.1 mM and binding energy -4.26±0.08 kcal/mol. Human adenylate kinases display unfavourable interactions, the binding affinity fluctuating among K<sub>i</sub>=0.84 mM and 8.8 mM (3.88±3.51); the energy binding -3.56±0.57. From the three human adenylate kinases analysed, only isoenzyme 2 shows a binding conformation similar to its counterpart from E. coli. Adenylate kinase - this small enzyme needed for survival of every organisms - interacts differently with 2,4-thiazolidinedione, this selectivity being the most important evidence of the present study.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuo Gao ◽  
Zhifeng Zhang ◽  
Xuejing Xu ◽  
Hui Zhou ◽  
Hong Zhu ◽  
...  

Abstract Small colony variants (SCVs) are a slow-growing subpopulation of bacteria characterized by their atypical colony morphology and distinct biochemical properties, which are known to cause chronic persistent infections. Here, we investigated the characteristics of three phenotypes of Escherichia coli, including a capnophilic SCV, co-isolated from a 64-year-old patient with bacteremia in China. The three strains were identified as a capnophilic strain (EC1), a capnophilic SCV (EC2), and a wild-type strain (EC3). The EC1 and EC2 strains did not grow in the absence of CO2, while the EC2 colonies were pinpoint in appearance and had the ability to revert to the large-form phenotype. The growth of the SCV was slow and not enhanced in the presence of thymidine, hemin, thiamine, and menadione. The results of antimicrobial susceptibility showed similar sensitivity to cefoxitin and imipenem, but resistant to most of the other antimicrobials tested. Whole genome sequencing showed that no genetic mutational variations associated with SCVs were observed, while EC1, EC2 and the revertible strains of EC2 lacked the can gene. Multi-locus sequence typing showed that all strains belonged to ST457 and nucleotide similarity analysis indicated that they had high homology. In conclusion, we report rarely described co-isolated forms of three phenotypes of E. coli that included acapnophilic SCV in a patient with bacteremia. The capnophilic SCV strain had atypical morphology and biochemical characteristics with the absent of can gene. Based on our findings, we have discussed the laboratory identification, characterization, mechanisms, and clinical treatment of capnophilic SCV strains.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 1269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sakda Yainoy ◽  
Thanawat Phuadraksa ◽  
Sineewanlaya Wichit ◽  
Maprang Sompoppokakul ◽  
Napat Songtawee ◽  
...  

The ideal therapeutic uricase (UOX) is expected to have the following properties; high expression level, high activity, high thermostability, high solubility and low immunogenicity. The latter property is believed to depend largely on sequence identity to the deduced human UOX (dH-UOX). Herein, we explored L. menadoensis uricase (LM-UOX) and found that it has 65% sequence identity to dH-UOX, 68% to the therapeutic chimeric porcine-baboon UOX (PBC) and 70% to the resurrected ancient mammal UOX. To study its biochemical properties, recombinant LM-UOX was produced in E. coli and purified to more than 95% homogeneity. The enzyme had specific activity up to 10.45 unit/mg, which was about 2-fold higher than that of the PBC. One-litre culture yielded purified protein up to 132 mg. Based on homology modelling, we successfully engineered I27C/N289C mutant, which was proven to contain inter-subunit disulphide bridges. The mutant had similar specific activity and production yield to that of wild type (WT) but its thermostability was dramatically improved. Up on storage at −20 °C and 4 °C, the mutant retained ~100% activity for at least 60 days. By keeping at 37 °C, the mutant retained ~100% activity for 15 days, which was 120-fold longer than that of the wild type. Thus, the I27C/N289C mutant has potential to be developed for treatment of hyperuricemia.


1999 ◽  
Vol 43 (12) ◽  
pp. 2904-2909 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youjun Yang ◽  
Raymond T. Testa ◽  
Niraja Bhachech ◽  
Beth A. Rasmussen ◽  
Karen Bush

ABSTRACT The biochemical properties of tetrahydrofuranyl (THF) carbapenems, carbapenems with THF substituents, were evaluated with respect to enzyme stability, binding to penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs), and penetration into gram-negative organisms. THF carbapenems showed increased stability to hog renal dehydropeptidases (DHPs) compared to that of imipenem or meropenem and were more stable to human DHP than imipenem (<10% hydrolysis compared to that for imipenem). THF carbapenems were stable to hydrolysis by all serine β-lactamases tested. CL 191,121, a prototype THF carbapenem, was more stable to hydrolysis by carbapenem-hydrolyzing serine β-lactamases such as IMI-1 and Sme-1 than imipenem, with a relativek cat value of <20% for imipenem. Similar to imipenem and meropenem, THF carbapenems were not stable to the metallo β-lactamases CcrA and L1. However, CL 191,121 bound to allStaphylococcus aureus PBPs at concentrations that were less than or equal to the MICs. The THF carbapenems bound to PBPs fromEscherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, with the highest affinities being for PBPs 2 and 4, as noted with imipenem. The affinities for PBPs 1a and 1b in E. coli were reduced for the THF carbapenems compared to that for imipenem, even though the MICs of the THF carbapenems for E. coli strains were lower than those of imipenem. The penetrability of the THF carbapenems into Serratia marcescens S6, which produces the Sme-1 carbapenem-hydrolyzing β-lactamase, was 2.4 to 7.8 times less than that of imipenem. Compounds CL 190,294 and CL 188,624 showed good penetrability, with permeability coefficient values comparable to those of the rapidly penetrating agents cephaloridine, imipenem, meropenem, and biapenem. Decreased penetration into wild-type P. aeruginosa was suggested by the high MICs of the THF carbapenems (MICs, 16 to 32 μg/ml), despite equivalent or better binding toP. aeruginosa PBPs than that of imipenem. However, the MICs of the THF carbapenems for wild-type P. aeruginosa compared to that for an OprD2 mutant generally varied no more than 2-fold, but those of imipenem and other carbapenems differed 16-fold. These data indicated that THF carbapenems do not appear to enter through protein OprD2. In conclusion, the THF carbapenems exhibited stability to hydrolysis by renal DHPs and serine β-lactamases, exhibited strong binding to essential PBPs from E. coli and S. aureus, and penetrated gram-negative enteric bacteria at rates comparable to those for meropenem and biapenem.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document