Regulation of an anthranilate synthase gene in Streptomyces venezuelae by a trp attenuator

Ribosome reinitiation at leader peptides increases translation of bacterial proteins

Short leader genes usually do not encode stable proteins, although their importance in expression control of bacterial genomes is widely accepted. Such genes are often involved in the control of attenuation regulation. However, the abundance of leader genes suggests that their role in bacteria is not limited to regulation. Specifically, we hypothesize that leader genes increase the expression of protein-coding (structural) genes via ribosome reinitiation at the leader peptide in the case of a short distance between the stop codon of the leader gene and the start codon of the structural gene. For instance, in Actinobacteria, the frequency of leader genes at a distance of 10-11 bp is about 70 % higher than the mean frequency within the 1 to 65 bp range; and it gradually decreases as the range grows longer. A pronounced peak of this frequency-distance relationship is also observed in Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Spirochaetales, Acidobacteria, the Deinococcus-Thermus group, and Planctomycetes. In contrast, this peak falls to the distance of 15-16 bp and is not very pronounced in Firmicutes; and no such peak is observed in cyanobacteria and tenericutes. Generally, this peak is typical for many bacteria. Some leader genes located close to a structural gene probably play a regulatory role as well.

The fused anthranilate synthase from Streptomyces venezuelae functions as a monomer

Recently, we showed that the fused chorismate-utilizing enzyme from the antibiotic-producing soil bacterium Streptomyces venezuelae is an anthranilate synthase (designated SvAS), not a 2-amino-2-deoxyisochorismate (ADIC) synthase, as was predicted based on its amino acid sequence similarity to the phenazine biosynthetic enzyme PhzE (an ADIC synthase). Here, we report the characterization of SvAS using steady-state kinetics, gel filtration chromatography, and laser light scattering. The recombinant His-tagged enzyme has Michaelis constants Km with respect to substrates chorismate and glutamine of 8.2 ± 0.2 μM and 0.84 ± 0.05 mM, respectively, and a catalytic rate constant k cat of 0.57 ± 0.02 s(-1) at 30 °C. Unlike most other anthranilate synthases, SvAS does not utilize ammonia as a substrate. The enzyme is competitively but non-cooperatively inhibited by tryptophan (K i = 11.1 ± 0.1 μM) and is active as a monomer. The finding that SvAS is a monomer jibes with the variety of association modes that have been observed for anthranilate synthases from different microorganisms, and it identifies the enzyme's minimal functional unit as a single TrpE-TrpG pair.

Gene expression regulation of the PF00480 or PF14340 domain proteins suggests their involvement in sulfur metabolism

The paper studies proteins with domains PF00480 or PF14340, as well as some other poorly characterized proteins, encoded by genes associated with leader peptide genes containing a tract of cysteine codons. Such proteins are hypothetically regulated with cysteine-dependent transcription attenuation, namely the Rho-dependent or classic transcription attenuation. Cysteine is an important structural amino acid in various proteins and is required for synthesis of many sulfur-containing compounds, such as methionine, thiamine, glutathione, taurine and the lipoic acid. Earlier a few species of mycobacteria were predicted by the authors to have cysteine-dependent regulation of operons containing the cysK gene. In Escherichia coli this regulation is absent, and the same operon is regulated by the CysB transcription activator. The paper also studies Rho-dependent and classic transcription regulations in all annotated genes of mycobacteria available in GenBank and their orthologs in Actinomycetales. We predict regulations for many genes involved in sulfur metabolism and transport of sulfur-containing compounds; these regulations differ considerably among species. On the basis of predictions, we assign a putative role to proteins encoded by the regulated genes with unknown function, and also describe the structure of corresponding regulons, predict the lack of such regulations for many genes. Thus, all proteins with the uncharacterized Pfam domains PF14340 and PF00480, as well as some others, are predicted to be involved in sulfur metabolism. We also surmise the affinity of some transporters to sulfur-containing compounds. The obtained results considerably extend earlier large-scale studies of Rho-dependent and classic transcription attenuations.

Modeling classic attenuation regulation of gene expression in bacteria

A model is proposed primarily for the classical RNA attenuation regulation of gene expression through premature transcription termination. The model is based on the concept of the RNA secondary structure macrostate within the regulatory region between the ribosome and RNA-polymerase, on hypothetical equation describing deceleration of RNA-polymerase by a macrostate and on views of transcription and translation initiation and elongation, under different values of the four basic model parameters which were varied. A special effort was made to select adequate model parameters. We first discuss kinetics of RNA folding and define the concept of the macrostate as a specific parentheses structure used to construct a conventional set of hairpins. The originally developed software that realizes the proposed model offers functionality to fully model RNA secondary folding kinetics. Its performance is compared to that of a public server described in Ref. 1. We then describe the delay in RNA-polymerase shifting to the next base or its premature termination caused by an RNA secondary structure or, herefrom, a macrostate. In this description, essential concepts are the basic and excited states of the polymerase first introduced in Ref. 2: the polymerase shifting to the next base can occur only in the basic state, and its detachment from DNA strand - only in excited state. As to the authors' knowledge, such a model incorporating the above-mentioned attenuation characteristics is not published elsewhere. The model was implemented in an application with command line interface for running in batch mode in Windows and Linux environments, as well as a public web server.(3) The model was tested with a conventional Monte Carlo procedure. In these simulations, the estimate of correlation between the premature transcription termination probability p and concentration c of charged amino acyl-tRNA was obtained as function p(c) for many regulatory regions in many bacterial genomes, as well as for local mutations in these regions.

Comparative analysis of RNA regulatory elements of amino acid metabolism genes in Actinobacteria

Background

Formation of alternative structures in mRNA in response to external stimuli, either direct or mediated by proteins or other RNAs, is a major mechanism of regulation of gene expression in bacteria. This mechanism has been studied in detail using experimental and computational approaches in proteobacteria and Firmicutes, but not in other groups of bacteria.

Results

Comparative analysis of amino acid biosynthesis operons in Actinobacteria resulted in identification of conserved regions upstream of several operons. Classical attenuators were predicted upstream of trp operons in Corynebacterium spp. and Streptomyces spp., and trpS and leuS genes in some Streptomyces spp. Candidate leader peptides with terminators were observed upstream of ilvB genes in Corynebacterium spp., Mycobacterium spp. and Streptomyces spp. Candidate leader peptides without obvious terminators were found upstream of cys operons in Mycobacterium spp. and several other species. A conserved pseudoknot (named LEU element) was identified upstream of leuA operons in most Actinobacteria. Finally, T-boxes likely involved in the regulation of translation initiation were observed upstream of ileS genes from several Actinobacteria.

Conclusion

The metabolism of tryptophan, cysteine and leucine in Actinobacteria seems to be regulated on the RNA level. In some cases the mechanism is classical attenuation, but in many cases some components of attenuators are missing. The most interesting case seems to be the leuA operon preceded by the LEU element that may fold into a conserved pseudoknot or an alternative structure. A LEU element has been observed in a transposase gene from Bifidobacterium longum, but it is not conserved in genes encoding closely related transposases despite a very high level of protein similarity. One possibility is that the regulatory region of the leuA has been co-opted from some element involved in transposition. Analysis of phylogenetic patterns allowed for identification of ML1624 of M. leprae and its orthologs as the candidate regulatory proteins that may bind to the LEU element. T-boxes upstream of the ileS genes are unusual, as their regulatory mechanism seems to be inhibition of translation initiation via a hairpin sequestering the Shine-Dalgarno box.

Ancient origin of the tryptophan operon and the dynamics of evolutionary change

The seven conserved enzymatic domains required for tryptophan (Trp) biosynthesis are encoded in seven genetic regions that are organized differently (whole-pathway operons, multiple partial-pathway operons, and dispersed genes) in prokaryotes. A comparative bioinformatics evaluation of the conservation and organization of the genes of Trp biosynthesis in prokaryotic operons should serve as an excellent model for assessing the feasibility of predicting the evolutionary histories of genes and operons associated with other biochemical pathways. These comparisons should provide a better understanding of possible explanations for differences in operon organization in different organisms at a genomics level. These analyses may also permit identification of some of the prevailing forces that dictated specific gene rearrangements during the course of evolution. Operons concerned with Trp biosynthesis in prokaryotes have been in a dynamic state of flux. Analysis of closely related organisms among the Bacteria at various phylogenetic nodes reveals many examples of operon scission, gene dispersal, gene fusion, gene scrambling, and gene loss from which the direction of evolutionary events can be deduced. Two milestone evolutionary events have been mapped to the 16S rRNA tree of Bacteria, one splitting the operon in two, and the other rejoining it by gene fusion. The Archaea, though less resolved due to a lesser genome representation, appear to exhibit more gene scrambling than the Bacteria. The trp operon appears to have been an ancient innovation; it was already present in the common ancestor of Bacteria and Archaea. Although the operon has been subjected, even in recent times, to dynamic changes in gene rearrangement, the ancestral gene order can be deduced with confidence. The evolutionary history of the genes of the pathway is discernible in rough outline as a vertical line of descent, with events of lateral gene transfer or paralogy enriching the analysis as interesting features that can be distinguished. As additional genomes are thoroughly analyzed, an increasingly refined resolution of the sequential evolutionary steps is clearly possible. These comparisons suggest that present-day trp operons that possess finely tuned regulatory features are under strong positive selection and are able to resist the disruptive evolutionary events that may be experienced by simpler, poorly regulated operons.

p-Aminobenzoic acid and chloramphenicol biosynthesis in Streptomyces venezuelae: gene sets for a key enzyme, 4-amino-4-deoxychorismate synthase

Amplification of sequences from Streptomyces venezuelae ISP5230 genomic DNA using PCR with primers based on conserved prokaryotic pabB sequences gave two main products. One matched pabAB, a locus previously identified in S. venezuelae. The second closely resembled the conserved pabB sequence consensus and hybridized with a 3.8 kb NcoI fragment of S. venezuelae ISP5230 genomic DNA. Cloning and sequence analysis of the 3.8 kb fragment detected three ORFs, and their deduced amino acid sequences were used in BLAST searches of the GenBank database. The ORF1 product was similar to PabB in other bacteria and to the PabB domain encoded by S. venezuelae pabAB. The ORF2 product resembled PabA of other bacteria. ORF3 was incomplete; its deduced partial amino acid sequence placed it in the MocR group of GntR-type transcriptional regulators. Introducing vectors containing the 3.8 kb NcoI fragment of S. venezuelae DNA into pabA and pabB mutants of Escherichia coli, or into the Streptomyces lividans pab mutant JG10, enhanced sulfanilamide resistance in the host strains. The increased resistance was attributed to expression of the pair of discrete translationally coupled p-aminobenzoic acid biosynthesis genes (designated pabB/pabA) cloned in the 3.8 kb fragment. These represent a second set of genes encoding 4-amino-4-deoxychorismate synthase in S. venezuelae ISP5230. In contrast to the fused pabAB set previously isolated from this species, they do not participate in chloramphenicol biosynthesis, but like pabAB they can be disrupted without affecting growth on minimal medium. The gene disruption results suggest that S. venezuelae may have a third set of genes encoding PABA synthase.

End-product control of expression of branched-chain amino acid biosynthesis genes in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2): paradoxical relationships between DNA sequence and regulatory phenotype

The branched-chain protein amino acids isoleucine, valine and leucine can provide precursors for synthesis of complex polyketide secondary metabolites in streptomycetes; therefore the regulation of their own synthesis is of interest. DNA sequences upstream of ilvBNC, ilvD, leuA, leuB, ilvE and leuCD in Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) have been obtained in this laboratory or as part of the S. coelicolor genome sequencing project. Upstream of ilvB and leuA, typical features of classical attenuator systems can be discerned, in particular hypothetical short ORFs with runs of Ile/Val/Leu and Leu codons, respectively. No such features are apparent upstream of other genes or gene clusters present. All five upstream regions were fused to xylE (encoding catechol dioxygenase, CO) as a reporter gene in the SCP2*-based low-copy-number vector pIJ2839. All wild-type regions showed strong depression of CO activity in the presence of all three branched-chain amino acids whether or not the attenuation features were present. By site-directed mutagenesis, the Ile/Val/Leu and Leu triplets in the putative attenuator peptides for ilvB and leuA were replaced by ones for other amino acids. In the case of ilvB, this had no effect at all; for leuA, the wild-type regulatory phenotype persisted in at least some experiments. It was concluded that (i) an unknown regulatory mechanism must be operating in the ilv/leu system of S. coelicolor A3(2) in place of classical attenuation; and (ii) it is unsafe to infer the functioning of a regulatory mechanism from sequence homologies alone.

The expression of the trpD, trpC and trpBA genes of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) is regulated by growth rate and growth phase but not by feedback repression

Transformation of tryptophan auxotrophs of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) and subsequent analysis have allowed the identification of four tryptophan biosynthetic genes. Subcloning, complementation of trp strains, nucleotide sequencing of 5.1 kb and 1.95 kb of DNA and subsequent homology comparisons identified the trpC, trpB and trpA genes and trpD gene respectively. The arrangement of genes in the trpCBA cluster is unusual in that trpC is separated by a small open reading frame, trpX, from the potentially translationally coupled trpB and trpA genes. Sequence analysis of the trpD gene revealed the presence of a large mRNA loop structure directly upstream of the trpD-coding region. S1 nuclease mapping studies of trpCXBA have revealed two major potential transcription start points, one just upstream of the trpC gene and the other located upstream of the trpX gene. S1 nuclease mapping of the trpD region revealed four fragment end-points. Quantitative S1 nuclease protection assays and a promoterless catechol dioxygenase reporter gene have revealed that the expression of all these genes is growth phase dependent and growth rate dependent, expression being maximal during early exponential phase and dropping off sharply in late exponential phase. This growth phase-dependent and growth rate-dependent regulation is the first reported in streptomycete primary metabolism.