Multiple binding partners

N-acetyl ornithine deacetylase is a moonlighting protein and is involved in the adaptation of Entamoeba histolytica to nitrosative stress

Adaptation of the Entamoeba histolytica parasite to toxic levels of nitric oxide (NO) that are produced by phagocytes may be essential for the establishment of chronic amebiasis and the parasite's survival in its host. In order to obtain insight into the mechanism of E. histolytica's adaptation to NO, E. histolytica trophozoites were progressively adapted to increasing concentrations of the NO donor drug, S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) up to a concentration of 110 μM. The transcriptome of NO adapted trophozoites (NAT) was investigated by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). N-acetyl ornithine deacetylase (NAOD) was among the 208 genes that were upregulated in NAT. NAOD catalyzes the deacetylation of N-acetyl-L-ornithine to yield ornithine and acetate. Here, we report that NAOD contributes to the better adaptation of the parasite to nitrosative stress (NS) and that this function does not depend on NAOD catalytic activity. We also demonstrated that glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) is detrimental to E. histolytica exposed to NS and that this detrimental effect is neutralized by NAOD or by a catalytically inactive NAOD (mNAOD). These results establish NAOD as a moonlighting protein, and highlight the unexpected role of this metabolic enzyme in the adaptation of the parasite to NS.

A Moonlighting Enolase from Lactobacillus gasseri does not Require Enzymatic Activity to Inhibit Neisseria gonorrhoeae Adherence to Epithelial Cells

Enolases are generally thought of as cytoplasmic enzymes involved in glycolysis and gluconeogenesis. However, several bacteria have active forms of enolase associated with the cell surface and these proteins are utilized for functions other than central metabolism. Recently, a surface-associated protein produced by Lactobacillus gasseri ATCC 33323 with homology to enolase was found to inhibit the adherence of the sexually transmitted pathogen, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, to epithelial cells in culture. Here, we show that the protein is an active enolase in vitro. A recombinantly expressed, C-terminal His-tagged version of the protein, His6-Eno3, inhibited gonococcal adherence. Assays utilizing inhibitors of enolase enzymatic activity showed that this inhibitory activity required the substrate-binding site to be in an open conformation; however, the enolase enzymatic activity of the protein was not necessary for inhibition of gonococcal adherence. An L. gasseri strain carrying an insertional mutation in eno3 was viable, indicating that eno3 is not an essential gene in L. gasseri 33323. This observation, along with the results of the enzyme assays, is consistent with reports that this strain encodes more than one enolase. Here we show that the three L. gasseri genes annotated as encoding an enolase are expressed. The L. gasseri eno3 mutant exhibited reduced, but not abolished, inhibition of gonococcal adherence, which supports the hypothesis that L. gasseri inhibition of gonococcal adherence is a multifactorial process.

Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase augments the intercellular transmission and toxicity of polyglutamine aggregates in a cell model of Huntington disease

The common feature of Huntington disease is the accumulation of oligomers or aggregates of mutant huntingtin protein (mHTT), which causes the death of a subset of striatal neuronal populations. The cytotoxic species can leave neurons and migrate to other groups of cells penetrating and damaging them in a prion-like manner. We hypothesized that the glycolytic enzyme glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), previously shown to elevate the aggregation of mHTT, is associated with an increased efficiency of intercellular propagation of mHTT. GAPDH, on its own or together with polyglutamine species, was shown to be released into the extracellular milieu mainly from dying cells as assessed by a novel enzyme immunoassay, western blotting, and ultrafiltration. The conditioned medium of cells with growing GAPDH-polyQ aggregates was toxic to naïve cells, whereas depletion of the aggregates from the medium lowered this cytotoxicity. The GAPDH component of the aggregates was found to increase their toxicity by two-fold in comparison with polyQ alone. Furthermore, GAPDH-polyQ complexes were shown to penetrate acceptor cells and to increase the capacity of polyQ to prionize its intracellular homolog containing a repeat of 25 glutamine residues. Finally, inhibitors of intracellular transport showed that polyQ-GAPDH complexes, as well as GAPDH itself, penetrated cells using clathrin-mediated endocytosis. This suggested a pivotal role of the enzyme in the intercellular transmission of Huntington disease pathogenicity. In conclusion, GAPDH occurring in complexes with polyglutamine strengthens the prion-like activity and toxicity of the migrating aggregates. Aggregating polygluatmine tracts were shown to release from the cells over-expressing mutant huntingtin in a complex with glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH). The enzyme enhances the intracellular transport of aggregates to healthy cells, prionization of normal cellular proteins and finally cell death, thus demonstrating the pivotal role of GAPDH in the horizontal transmission of neurodegeneration.