Reconstituted phosphatidylserine synthase from Escherichia coli is activated by anionic phospholipids and micelle-forming amphiphiles

Promiscuous phospholipid biosynthesis enzymes in the plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae

Bacterial membranes are primarily composed of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylglycerol (PG) and cardiolipin (CL). In the canonical PE biosynthesis pathway, phosphatidylserine (PS) is decarboxylated by the Psd enzyme. CL formation typically depends on CL synthases (Cls) using two PG molecules as substrates. Only few bacteria produce phosphatidylcholine (PC), the hallmark of eukaryotic membranes. Most of these bacteria use phospholipid N-methyltransferases to successively methylate PE to PC and/or a PC synthase (Pcs) to catalyze the condensation of choline and CDP-diacylglycerol (CDP-DAG) to PC. In this study, we show that membranes of Pseudomonas species able to interact with eukaryotes contain PE, PG, CL and PC. More specifically, we report on PC formation and a poorly characterized CL biosynthetic pathway in the plant pathogen P. syringae pv. tomato. It encodes a Pcs enzyme responsible for choline-dependent PC biosynthesis. CL formation is catalyzed by a promiscuous phospholipase D (PLD)-type enzyme (PSPTO_0095) that we characterized in vivo and in vitro. Like typical bacterial CL biosynthesis enzymes, it uses PE and PG for CL production. This enzyme is also able to convert PE and glycerol to PG, which is then combined with another PE molecule to synthesize CL. In addition, the enzyme is capable of converting ethanolamine or methylated derivatives into the corresponding phospholipids such as PE both in P. syringae and in E. coli. It can also hydrolyze CDP-DAG to yield phosphatidic acid (PA). Our study adds an example of a promiscuous Cls enzyme able to synthesize a suite of products according to the available substrates.

Genetically controlled membrane synthesis in liposomes

Lipid membranes, nucleic acids, proteins, and metabolism are essential for modern cellular life. Synthetic systems emulating the fundamental properties of living cells must therefore be built upon these functional elements. In this work, phospholipid-producing enzymes encoded in a synthetic minigenome are cell-free expressed within liposome compartments. The de novo synthesized metabolic pathway converts precursors into a variety of lipids, including the constituents of the parental liposome. Balanced production of phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol is realized, owing to transcriptional regulation of the activity of specific genes combined with a metabolic feedback mechanism. Fluorescence-based methods are developed to image the synthesis and membrane incorporation of phosphatidylserine at the single liposome level. Our results provide experimental evidence for DNA-programmed membrane synthesis in a minimal cell model. Strategies are discussed to alleviate current limitations toward effective liposome growth and self-reproduction.

Biosynthesis of Membrane Lipids

The pathways in Escherichia coli and (largely by analogy) S. enterica remain the paradigm of bacterial lipid synthetic pathways, although recently considerable diversity among bacteria in the specific areas of lipid synthesis has been demonstrated. The structural biology of the fatty acid synthetic proteins is essentially complete. However, the membrane-bound enzymes of phospholipid synthesis remain recalcitrant to structural analyses. Recent advances in genetic technology have allowed the essentialgenes of lipid synthesis to be tested with rigor, and as expected most genes are essential under standard growth conditions. Conditionally lethal mutants are available in numerous genes, which facilitates physiological analyses. The array of genetic constructs facilitates analysis of the functions of genes from other organisms. Advances in mass spectroscopy have allowed very accurate and detailed analyses of lipid compositions as well as detection of the interactions of lipid biosynthetic proteins with one another and with proteins outside the lipid pathway. The combination of these advances has resulted in use of E. coli and S. enterica for discovery of new antimicrobials targeted to lipid synthesis and in deciphering the molecular actions of known antimicrobials. Finally,roles for bacterial fatty acids other than as membrane lipid structural components have been uncovered. For example, fatty acid synthesis plays major roles in the synthesis of the essential enzyme cofactors, biotin and lipoic acid. Although other roles for bacterial fatty acids, such as synthesis of acyl-homoserine quorum-sensing molecules, are not native to E. coli introduction of the relevant gene(s) synthesis of these foreign molecules readily proceeds and the sophisticated tools available can used to decipher the mechanisms of synthesis of these molecules.

The membrane: transertion as an organizing principle in membrane heterogeneity

The bacterial membrane exhibits a significantly heterogeneous distribution of lipids and proteins. This heterogeneity results mainly from lipid-lipid, protein-protein, and lipid-protein associations which are orchestrated by the coupled transcription, translation and insertion of nascent proteins into and through membrane (transertion). Transertion is central not only to the individual assembly and disassembly of large physically linked groups of macromolecules (alias hyperstructures) but also to the interactions between these hyperstructures. We review here these interactions in the context of the processes in Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli of nutrient sensing, membrane synthesis, cytoskeletal dynamics, DNA replication, chromosome segregation, and cell division.

A retrospective: use of Escherichia coli as a vehicle to study phospholipid synthesis and function

Although the study of individual phospholipids and their synthesis began in the 1920s first in plants and then mammals, it was not until the early 1960s that Eugene Kennedy using Escherichia coli initiated studies of bacterial phospholipid metabolism. With the base of information already available from studies of mammalian tissue, the basic blueprint of phospholipid biosynthesis in E. coli was worked out by the late 1960s. In 1970s and 1980s most of the enzymes responsible for phospholipid biosynthesis were purified and many of the genes encoding these enzymes were identified. By the late 1990s conditional and null mutants were available along with clones of the genes for every step of phospholipid biosynthesis. Most of these genes had been sequenced before the complete E. coli genome sequence was available. Strains of E. coli were developed in which phospholipid composition could be changed in a systematic manner while maintaining cell viability. Null mutants, strains in which phospholipid metabolism was artificially regulated, and strains synthesizing foreign lipids not found in E. coli have been used to this day to define specific roles for individual phospholipid. This review will trace the findings that have led to the development of E. coli as an excellent model system to study mechanisms underlying the synthesis and function of phospholipids that are widely applicable to other prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Phospholipids and Phospholipid Metabolism.

Effects of lipid composition on the membrane activity and lipid phase behaviour of Vibrio sp. DSM14379 cells grown at various NaCl concentrations

The membrane lipid composition of living cells generally adjusts to the prevailing environmental and physiological conditions. In this study, membrane activity and lipid composition of the Gram-negative bacterium Vibrio sp. DSM14379, grown aerobically in a peptone-yeast extract medium supplemented with 0.5, 1.76, 3, 5 or 10% (w/v) NaCl, was determined. The ability of the membrane to reduce a spin label was studied by EPR spectroscopy under different salt concentrations in cell suspensions labeled with TEMPON. For lipid composition studies, cells were harvested in a late exponential phase and lipids were extracted with chloroform-methanol-water, 1:2:0.8 (v/v). The lipid polar head group and acyl chain compositions were determined by thin-layer and gas-liquid chromatographies. (31)P-NMR spectroscopy was used to study the phase behaviour of the cell lipid extracts with 20 wt.% water contents in a temperature range from -10 to 50 degrees C. The results indicate that the ability of the membrane to reduce the spin label was highest at optimal salt concentrations. The composition of both polar head groups and acyl chains changed markedly with increasing salinity. The fractions of 16:0, 16:1 and 18:0 acyl chains increased while the fraction of 18:1 acyl chains decreased with increasing salinity. The phosphatidylethanolamine fraction correlated inversely with the lysophosphatidylethanolamine fraction, with phosphatidylethanolamine exhibiting a minimum, and lysophosphatidylethanolamine a maximum, at the optimum growth rate. The fraction of lysophosphatidylethanolamine was surprisingly high in the lipid extracts. This lipid can form normal micellar and hexagonal phases and it was found that all lipid extracts form a mixture of lamellar and normal isotropic liquid crystalline phases. This is an anomalous behaviour since the nonlamellar phases formed by total lipid extracts are generally of the reversed type.

Lipid dependence and activity control of phosphatidylserine synthase fromEscherichia coli

The activity of phosphatidylserine synthase from Escherichia coli depends significantly on the nature and level of the lipids in the matrix, at which the enzyme is operating. To elucidate the role of anionic lipids in the regulation of PtdSer synthase, its activity was studied in mixed micelles containing phosphatidylglycerol (one charge) or diphosphatidylglycerol (two charges), the two main anionic membrane lipids in E. coli. Membrane association and activity of PtdSer synthase were increased by the two lipids, indicating their essential role in the positive regulation mechanism of the phosphatidylethanolamine level in the E. coli membrane.

Biogenesis and cellular dynamics of aminoglycerophospholipids

Aminoglycerophospholipids phosphatidylserine (PtdSer), phosphatidylethanolamine (PtdEtn), and phosphatidylcholine (PtdCho) comprise about 80% of total cellular phospholipids in most cell types. While the major function of PtdCho in eukaryotes and PtdEtn in prokaryotes is that of bulk membrane lipids, PtdSer is a minor component and appears to play a more specialized role in the plasma membrane of eukaryotes, e.g., in cell recognition processes. All three aminoglycerophospholipid classes are essential in mammals, whereas prokaryotes and lower eukaryotes such as yeast appear to be more flexible regarding their aminoglycerophospholipid requirement. Since different subcellular compartments of eukaryotes, namely the endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria, contribute to the biosynthetic sequence of aminoglycerophospholipid formation, intracellular transport, sorting, and specific function of these lipids in different organelles are of special interest.

Bacterial Membrane Lipids: Where Do We Stand?

Phospholipids play multiple roles in bacterial cells. These are the establishment of the permeability barrier, provision of the environment for many enzyme and transporter proteins, and they influence membrane-related processes such as protein export and DNA replication. The lipid synthetic pathway also provides precursors for protein modification and for the synthesis of other molecules. This review concentrates on the phospholipid synthetic pathway and discusses recent data on the synthesis and function of phospholipids mainly in the bacterium Escherichia coli.

Envelope disorder of Escherichia coli cells lacking phosphatidylglycerol

Phosphatidylglycerol, the most abundant acidic phospholipid in Escherichia coli, is considered to play specific roles in various cellular processes that are essential for cell viability. A null mutation of pgsA, which encodes phosphatidylglycerophosphate synthase, does indeed confer lethality. However, pgsA null mutants are viable if they lack the major outer membrane lipoprotein (Lpp) (lpp mutant) (S. Kikuchi, I. Shibuya, and K. Matsumoto, J. Bacteriol. 182:371-376, 2000). Here we show that Lpp expressed from a plasmid causes cell lysis in a pgsA lpp double mutant. The envelopes of cells harvested just before lysis could not be separated into outer and inner membrane fractions by sucrose density gradient centrifugation. In contrast, expression of a mutant Lpp (LppdeltaK) lacking the COOH-terminal lysine residue (required for covalent linking to peptidoglycan) did not cause lysis and allowed for the clear separation of the outer and inner membranes. We propose that in pgsA mutants LppdeltaK could not be modified by the addition of a diacylglyceryl moiety normally provided by phosphatidylglycerol and that this defect caused unmodified LppdeltaK to accumulate in the inner membrane. Although LppdeltaK accumulation did not lead to lysis, the accumulation of unmodified wild-type Lpp apparently led to the covalent linking to peptidoglycan, causing the inner membrane to be anomalously anchored to peptidoglycan and eventually leading to lysis. We suggest that this anomalous anchoring largely explains a major portion of the nonviable phenotypes of pgsA null mutants.

Dispensable nature of phosphatidylglycerol in Escherichia coli: dual roles of anionic phospholipids

The major anionic phospholipids of Escherichia coli, phosphatidylglycerol (PG) and cardiolipin (CL), have been considered to be indispensable for essential cellular functions, such as the initiation of DNA replication and translocation of proteins across the cytoplasmic membrane. However, we successfully constructed a null pgsA mutant of E. coli that had undetectable levels of PG and CL if the major outer membrane lipoprotein was deficient, clearly indicating that these anionic phospholipids are not indispensable. In the null mutant, we observed the accumulation of phosphatidic acid, an acidic biosynthetic precursor. This suggests a functionally substitutable nature of these anionic phospholipids and allows us to formulate a dual role model for the physiological roles of the anionic phospholipids in E. coli. The anionic phospholipids may play dual roles in E. coli as (i) substrates for head group-specific enzyme reactions, albeit the viability of null PG mutants indicates that the products of head group-specific reactions are not essential; and (ii) those that are replaceable, partly or entirely, by other phospholipids bearing net negative charges, because of their rather loose head group specificity. These two aspects of the physiological roles of anionic phospholipids are discussed with special reference to the phospholipids of other bacteria and eukaryotic organelles.

Interaction of phosphatidylserine synthase from E. coli with lipid bilayers: coupled plasmon-waveguide resonance spectroscopy studies

The interaction of phosphatidylserine (PS) synthase from Escherichia coli with lipid membranes was studied with a recently developed variant of the surface plasmon resonance technique, referred to as coupled plasmon-waveguide resonance spectroscopy. The features of the new technique are increased sensitivity and spectral resolution, and a unique ability to directly measure the structural anisotropy of lipid and proteolipid films. Solid-supported lipid bilayers with the following compositions were used: 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC); POPC-1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphate (POPA) (80:20, mol/mol); POPC-POPA (60:40, mol/mol); and POPC-1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-[phospho-rac-(1-glycerol)] (POPG) (75:25, mol/mol). Addition of either POPA or POPG to a POPC bilayer causes a considerable increase of both the bilayer thickness and its optical anisotropy. PS synthase exhibits a biphasic interaction with the bilayers. The first phase, occurring at low protein concentrations, involves both electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions, although it is dominated by the latter, and the enzyme causes a local decrease of the ordering of the lipid molecules. The second phase, occurring at high protein concentrations, is predominantly controlled by electrostatic interactions, and results in a cooperative binding of the enzyme to the membrane surface. Addition of the anionic lipids to a POPC bilayer causes a 5- to 15-fold decrease in the protein concentration at which the first binding phase occurs. The results reported herein lend experimental support to a previously suggested mechanism for the regulation of the polar head group composition in E. coli membranes.

Viability of an Escherichia coli pgsA null mutant lacking detectable phosphatidylglycerol and cardiolipin

Phosphatidylglycerol, the most abundant acidic phospholipid in Escherichia coli, has been considered to play specific roles in various cellular processes and is believed to be essential for cell viability. It is functionally replaced in some cases by cardiolipin, another abundant acidic phospholipid derived from phosphatidylglycerol. However, we now show that a null pgsA mutant is viable, if the major outer membrane lipoprotein is deficient. The pgsA gene normally encodes phosphatidylglycerophosphate synthase that catalyzes the committed step in the biosynthesis of these acidic phospholipids. In the mutant, the activity of this enzyme and both phosphatidylglycerol and cardiolipin were not detected (less than 0.01% of total phospholipid, both below the detection limit), although phosphatidic acid, an acidic biosynthetic precursor, accumulated (4.0%). Nonetheless, the null mutant grew almost normally in rich media. In low-osmolarity media and minimal media, however, it could not grow. It did not grow at temperatures over 40 degrees C, explaining the previous inability to construct a null pgsA mutant (W. Xia and W. Dowhan, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92:783-787, 1995). Phosphatidylglycerol and cardiolipin are therefore nonessential for cell viability or basic life functions. This notion allows us to formulate a working model that defines the physiological functions of acidic phospholipids in E. coli and explains the suppressing effect of lipoprotein deficiency.