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Reynolds MF. New insights into the signal transduction mechanism of O 2-sensing FixL and other biological heme-based sensor proteins. J Inorg Biochem 2024; 259:112642. [PMID: 38908215 DOI: 10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2024.112642] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2024] [Revised: 05/24/2024] [Accepted: 06/13/2024] [Indexed: 06/24/2024]
Abstract
Recent structural and biophysical studies of O2-sensing FixL, NO-sensing soluble guanylate cyclase, and other biological heme-based sensing proteins have begun to reveal the details of their molecular mechanisms and shed light on how nature regulates important biological processes such as nitrogen fixation, blood pressure, neurotransmission, photosynthesis and circadian rhythm. The O2-sensing FixL protein from S. meliloti, the eukaryotic NO-sensing protein sGC, and the CO-sensing CooA protein from R. rubrum transmit their biological signals through gas-binding to the heme domain of these proteins, which inhibits or activates the regulatory, enzymatic domain. These proteins appear to propagate their signal by specific structural changes in the heme sensor domain initiated by the appropriate gas binding to the heme, which is then propagated through a coiled-coil linker or other domain to the regulatory, enzymatic domain that sends out the biological signal. The current understanding of the signal transduction mechanisms of O2-sensing FixL, NO-sensing sGC, CO-sensing CooA and other biological heme-based gas sensing proteins and their mechanistic themes are discussed, with recommendations for future work to further understand this rapidly growing area of biological heme-based gas sensors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark F Reynolds
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Saint Joseph's University, 5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19131, United States of America.
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Mokdad A, Ang E, Desciak M, Ott C, Vilbert A, Beddow O, Butuc A, Larsen RW, Reynolds MF. Photoacoustic Calorimetry Studies of O 2-Sensing FixL and (R200, I209) Variants from Sinorhizobium meliloti Reveal Conformational Changes Coupled to Ligand Photodissociation from the Heme-PAS Domain. Biochemistry 2024; 63:116-127. [PMID: 38127721 PMCID: PMC10765370 DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.3c00438] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2023] [Revised: 11/29/2023] [Accepted: 12/06/2023] [Indexed: 12/23/2023]
Abstract
FixL is an oxygen-sensing heme-PAS protein that regulates nitrogen fixation in the root nodules of plants. In this paper, we present the first photothermal studies of the full-length wild-type FixL protein from Sinorhizobium meliloti and the first thermodynamic profile of a full-length heme-PAS protein. Photoacoustic calorimetry studies reveal a quadriphasic relaxation for SmFixL*WT and the five variant proteins (SmFixL*R200H, SmFixL*R200Q, SmFixL*R200E, SmFixL*R200A, and SmFixL*I209M) with four intermediates from <20 ns to ∼1.5 μs associated with the photodissociation of CO from the heme. The altered thermodynamic profiles of the full-length SmFixL* variant proteins confirm that the conserved heme domain residues R200 and I209 are important for signal transduction. In contrast, the truncated heme domain, SmFixLH128-264, shows only a single, fast monophasic relaxation at <50 ns associated with the fast disruption of a salt bridge and release of CO to the solvent, suggesting that the full-length protein is necessary to observe the conformational changes that propagate the signal from the heme domain to the kinase domain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Audrey Mokdad
- Department
of Chemistry, University of South Florida, 4202 East Fowler Avenue SCA 400, Tampa, Florida 33620, United States
| | - EuTchen Ang
- Department
of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Saint Joseph’s
University, 5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19131, United States
| | - Michael Desciak
- Department
of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Saint Joseph’s
University, 5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19131, United States
| | - Christine Ott
- Department
of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Saint Joseph’s
University, 5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19131, United States
| | - Avery Vilbert
- Department
of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Saint Joseph’s
University, 5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19131, United States
| | - Olivia Beddow
- Department
of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Saint Joseph’s
University, 5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19131, United States
| | - Artiom Butuc
- Department
of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Saint Joseph’s
University, 5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19131, United States
| | - Randy W. Larsen
- Department
of Chemistry, University of South Florida, 4202 East Fowler Avenue SCA 400, Tampa, Florida 33620, United States
| | - Mark F. Reynolds
- Department
of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Saint Joseph’s
University, 5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19131, United States
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pH dependence of cyanide and imidazole binding to the heme domains of Sinorhizobium meliloti and Bradyrhizobium japonicum FixL. J Inorg Biochem 2015; 153:88-102. [PMID: 26499393 DOI: 10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2015.10.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2015] [Revised: 09/25/2015] [Accepted: 10/05/2015] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Equilibrium and kinetic properties of cyanide and imidazole binding to the heme domains of Sinorhizobium meliloti and Bradyrhizobium japonicum FixL (SmFixLH and BjFixLH) have been investigated between pH5 and 11. KD determinations were made at integral pH values, with the strongest binding at pH9 for both ligands. KD for the cyanide complexes of BjFixLH and SmFixLH is 0.15±0.09 and 0.50±0.20μM, respectively, and 0.70±0.01mM for imido-BjFixLH. The association rate constants are pH dependent with maximum values of 443±8 and 252±61M(-1)s(-1) for cyano complexes of BjFixLH and SmFixLH and (5.0±0.3)×10(4) and (7.0±1.4)×10(4)M(-1)s(-1) for the imidazole complexes. The dissociation rate constants are essentially independent of pH above pH5; (1.2±0.3)×10(-4) and (1.7±0.3)×10(-4)s(-1) for the cyano complexes of BjFixLH and SmFixLH, and (73±19) and (77±14) s(-1) for the imidazole complexes. Two ionizable groups in FixLH affect the rate of ligand binding. The more acidic group, identified as the heme 6 propionic acid, has a pKa of 7.6±0.2 in BjFixLH and 6.8±0.2 in SmFixLH. The second ionization is due to formation of hydroxy-FixLH with pKa values of 9.64±0.05 for BjFixLH and 9.61±0.05 for SmFixLH. Imidazole binding is limited by the rate of heme pocket opening with maximum observed values of 680 and 1270s(-1) for BjFixLH and SmFixLH, respectively.
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Shimizu T, Huang D, Yan F, Stranava M, Bartosova M, Fojtíková V, Martínková M. Gaseous O2, NO, and CO in signal transduction: structure and function relationships of heme-based gas sensors and heme-redox sensors. Chem Rev 2015; 115:6491-533. [PMID: 26021768 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.5b00018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 131] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Toru Shimizu
- †Department of Cell Biology and Genetics and Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology in High Cancer Incidence Coastal Chaoshan Area of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong 515041, China
- ‡Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Prague 2 128 43, Czech Republic
- §Research Center for Compact Chemical System, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Sendai 983-8551, Japan
| | - Dongyang Huang
- †Department of Cell Biology and Genetics and Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology in High Cancer Incidence Coastal Chaoshan Area of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong 515041, China
| | - Fang Yan
- †Department of Cell Biology and Genetics and Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology in High Cancer Incidence Coastal Chaoshan Area of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong 515041, China
| | - Martin Stranava
- ‡Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Prague 2 128 43, Czech Republic
| | - Martina Bartosova
- ‡Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Prague 2 128 43, Czech Republic
| | - Veronika Fojtíková
- ‡Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Prague 2 128 43, Czech Republic
| | - Markéta Martínková
- ‡Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Prague 2 128 43, Czech Republic
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Watts KJ, Taylor BL, Johnson MS. PAS/poly-HAMP signalling in Aer-2, a soluble haem-based sensor. Mol Microbiol 2010; 79:686-99. [PMID: 21255112 DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2010.07477.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Poly-HAMP domains are widespread in bacterial chemoreceptors, but previous studies have focused on receptors with single HAMP domains. The Pseudomonas aeruginosa chemoreceptor, Aer-2, has an unusual domain architecture consisting of a PAS-sensing domain sandwiched between three N-terminal and two C-terminal HAMP domains, followed by a conserved kinase control module. The structure of the N-terminal HAMP domains was recently solved, making Aer-2 the first protein with resolved poly-HAMP structure. The role of Aer-2 in P. aeruginosa is unclear, but here we show that Aer-2 can interact with the chemotaxis system of Escherichia coli to mediate repellent responses to oxygen, carbon monoxide and nitric oxide. Using this model system to investigate signalling and poly-HAMP function, we determined that the Aer-2 PAS domain binds penta-co-ordinated b-type haem and that reversible signalling requires four of the five HAMP domains. Deleting HAMP 2 and/or 3 resulted in a kinase-off phenotype, whereas deleting HAMP 4 and/or 5 resulted in a kinase-on phenotype. Overall, these data support a model in which ligand-bound Aer-2 PAS and HAMP 2 and 3 act together to relieve inhibition of the kinase control module by HAMP 4 and 5, resulting in the kinase-on state of the Aer-2 receptor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kylie J Watts
- Division of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA 92350, USA.
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Rodgers KR, Lukat-Rodgers GS. Insights into heme-based O2 sensing from structure-function relationships in the FixL proteins. J Inorg Biochem 2005; 99:963-77. [PMID: 15811514 DOI: 10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2005.02.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2005] [Revised: 02/08/2005] [Accepted: 02/14/2005] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
FixL proteins are bacterial heme-containing signal transduction proteins responsible for sensing the O(2) concentration in the organism's environment. In Sinorhizobium meliloti FixL is a protein histidine kinase that, together with its response regulator FixJ, constitute an oxygen-sensitive switch for regulation of the organism's nitrogen fixation and microaerobic respiration genes. The O(2) sensitivity of the switch is such that it transitions during the process of symbiosis in alfalfa roots. Bradyrhizobium japonicum FixL similarly regulates microaerobic and anaerobic respiration genes during symbiosis in soybean roots. FixLs responds to low oxygen concentrations with increased autophosphorylation activity of their kinase domains. The phosphorylated FixL provides a phosphoryl group to FixJ within a FixLJ complex. The phosphorylated FixJs are transcriptionally active toward their target genes. The FixL kinase domain is inhibited when the heme in FixL is oxygenated. Kinetic and thermodynamic studies of ligand binding to both ferrous and ferric FixLs have shown a generally low affinity for ligands relative to myoglobins. These relatively low ligand affinities are attributable almost completely to diminished rates of ligand binding. The heme and its environment in liganded and unliganded FixLs have been characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, resonance Raman spectroscopy, EXAFS, and X-ray crystallography. These studies have revealed that in the purified proteins, the heme is converted from a six-coordinate low spin state to a five-coordinate high spin state upon O(2) release. Comparisons of spectroscopic and structural characteristics of deoxyFixL with oxyFixL, met-FixL-CN, FixL-CO, and FixL-NO complexes indicate that distal affects in the heme pocket are, at least in part, responsible for communicating the ligation state of the heme to the kinase domain. The mechanisms by which ligand binding events are communicated from the heme to the kinase domain involves propagation and/or amplification of the ligation-coupled conformational transitions of the heme and its immediate protein environment. More recently, time-resolved experiments examining the nonequilibrium, ligand-coupled dynamics initiated by O(2), CO, and NO photolysis from the corresponding FixL complexes have begun to shed light on the landscape of the switching coordinate. Current thinking and understanding of the mechanism for signal transduction in the FixLJ systems are discussed in the context of these physical investigations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kenton R Rodgers
- Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, North Dakota State University, Ladd Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5516, USA.
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Abstract
The most common physiological strategy for detecting the gases oxygen, carbon monoxide, and nitric oxide is signal transduction by heme-based sensors, a broad class of modular proteins in which a heme-binding domain governs the activity of a neighboring transmitter domain. Different structures are possible for the heme-binding domains in these sensors, but, so far, the Per-ARNT-Sim motif, or PAS domain, is the one most commonly encountered. Heme-binding PAS (heme-PAS) domains can accomplish ligand-dependent switching of a variety of partner domains, including histidine kinase, phosphodiesterase, and basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) DNA-binding modules. Proteins with heme-PAS domains occur in all kingdoms of life and are quite diverse in their physiological roles. Examples include the neuronal bHLH-PAS carbon monoxide sensor NPAS2 that is implicated in the mammalian circadian clock, the acetobacterial oxygen sensor AxPDEA1 that directs cellulose production, and the rhizobial oxygen sensor FixL, which governs nitrogen fixation. What factors determine the range of detection of these sensors? How do they transduce their signal? This review examines the recent advances in answering these questions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie-Alda Gilles-Gonzalez
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas 75390-9038, USA.
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Nakamura H, Kumita H, Imai K, Iizuka T, Shiro Y. ADP reduces the oxygen-binding affinity of a sensory histidine kinase, FixL: the possibility of an enhanced reciprocating kinase reaction. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2004; 101:2742-6. [PMID: 14970341 PMCID: PMC365691 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0305795101] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The rhizobial FixL/FixJ system, a paradigm of heme-based oxygen sensors, belongs to the ubiquitous two-component signal transduction system. Oxygen-free (deoxy) FixL is autophosphorylated at an invariant histidine residue by using ATP and catalyzes the concomitant phosphoryl transfer to FixJ, but oxygen binding to the FixL heme moiety inactivates the kinase activity. Here we demonstrate that ADP acts as an allosteric effector, reducing the oxygen-binding affinity of the sensor domain in FixL when it is produced from ATP in the kinase reaction. The addition of ADP to a solution of purified wild-type FixL resulted in an approximately 4- to 5-fold decrease in oxygen-binding affinity in the presence of FixJ. In contrast, phosphorylation-deficient mutants, in which the well conserved ATP-binding catalytic site of the kinase domain is impaired, showed no such allosteric effect. This discovery casts light on the significance of homodimerization of two-component histidine kinases; ADP, generated in the phosphorylation reaction in one subunit of the homodimer, enhances the histidine kinase activity of the other, analogous to a two-cylinder reciprocating engine by reducing the ligand-binding affinity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hiro Nakamura
- RIKEN Harima Institute/SPring-8, Mikazuki, Sayo, Hyogo 679-5148, Japan.
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Akimoto S, Tanaka A, Nakamura K, Shiro Y, Nakamura H. O2-specific regulation of the ferrous heme-based sensor kinase FixL from Sinorhizobium meliloti and its aberrant inactivation in the ferric form. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2003; 304:136-42. [PMID: 12705897 DOI: 10.1016/s0006-291x(03)00556-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
FixL, a rhizobial heme-based O2-sensing histidine kinase, catalyzes autophosphorylation in the deoxy form at low O2 tension, while the kinase activity is inhibited in the case of the O2-bound form. The present study unambiguously shows that the binding of CO and NO does not significantly inhibit the kinase activity of dithiothreitol (DTT)-reduced ferrous FixL from Sinorhizobium meliloti, which is inconsistent with the spin state mechanism previously reported. Kinase inactivation is caused by aberrant disulfide (S-S) bond formation at Cys301 in the ferric homodimer, which explains these contradictory observations. The addition of DTT cleaved the S-S bond, leading to restoration of kinase activity in the ferric form as well as heme reduction, but, sodium hydrosulfite treatment produced the kinase-inactive deoxy form without S-S cleavage. On the basis of these experimental results, it can be concluded that ferrous FixL discriminates O2 from CO and NO, and signals the O2-bound state by downregulating the phosphoryl transfer reaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Satoru Akimoto
- RIKEN Harima Institute/SPring-8, Mikazuki, 679-5148, Hyogo, Japan
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Liebl U, Bouzhir-Sima L, Negrerie M, Martin JL, Vos MH. Ultrafast ligand rebinding in the heme domain of the oxygen sensors FixL and Dos: general regulatory implications for heme-based sensors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2002; 99:12771-6. [PMID: 12271121 PMCID: PMC130535 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.192311699] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2002] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Heme-based oxygen sensors are part of ligand-specific two-component regulatory systems, which have both a relatively low oxygen affinity and a low oxygen-binding rate. To get insight into the dynamical aspects underlying these features and the ligand specificity of the signal transduction from the heme sensor domain, we used femtosecond spectroscopy to study ligand dynamics in the heme domains of the oxygen sensors FixL from Bradyrhizobium japonicum (FixLH) and Dos from Escherichia coli (DosH). The heme coordination with different ligands and the corresponding ground-state heme spectra of FixLH are similar to myoglobin (Mb). After photodissociation, the excited-state properties and ligand-rebinding kinetics are qualitatively similar for FixLH and Mb for CO and NO as ligands. In contrast to Mb, the transient spectra of FixLH after photodissociation of ligands are distorted compared with the ground-state difference spectra, indicating differences in the heme environment with respect to the unliganded state. This distortion is particularly marked for O(2). Strikingly, heme-O(2) recombination occurs with efficiency unprecedented for heme proteins, in approximately 5 ps for approximately 90% of the dissociated O(2). For DosH-O(2), which shows 60% sequence similarity to FixLH, but where signal detection and transmission presumably are quite different, a similarly fast recombination was found with an even higher yield. Altogether these results indicate that in these sensors the heme pocket acts as a ligand-specific trap. The general implications for the functioning of heme-based ligand sensors are discussed in the light of recent studies on heme-based NO and CO sensors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ursula Liebl
- Laboratory for Optical Biosciences, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale U451, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Unité Mixte de Recherche 7645, France
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