Acyl carrier protein (ACP) import into chloroplasts does not require the phosphopantetheine: evidence for a chloroplast holo-ACP synthase

A phosphopantetheinyl transferase that is essential for mitochondrial fatty acid biosynthesis

In this study we report the molecular genetic characterization of the Arabidopsis mitochondrial phosphopantetheinyl transferase (mtPPT), which catalyzes the phosphopantetheinylation and thus activation of mitochondrial acyl carrier protein (mtACP) of mitochondrial fatty acid synthase (mtFAS). This catalytic capability of the purified mtPPT protein (encoded by AT3G11470) was directly demonstrated in an in vitro assay that phosphopantetheinylated mature Arabidopsis apo-mtACP isoforms. The mitochondrial localization of the AT3G11470-encoded proteins was validated by the ability of their N-terminal 80-residue leader sequence to guide a chimeric GFP protein to this organelle. A T-DNA-tagged null mutant mtppt-1 allele shows an embryo-lethal phenotype, illustrating a crucial role of mtPPT for embryogenesis. Arabidopsis RNAi transgenic lines with reduced mtPPT expression display typical phenotypes associated with a deficiency in the mtFAS system, namely miniaturized plant morphology, slow growth, reduced lipoylation of mitochondrial proteins, and the hyperaccumulation of photorespiratory intermediates, glycine and glycolate. These morphological and metabolic alterations are reversed when these plants are grown in a non-photorespiratory condition (i.e. 1% CO2 atmosphere), demonstrating that they are a consequence of a deficiency in photorespiration due to the reduced lipoylation of the photorespiratory glycine decarboxylase.

The phosphopantetheinyl transferases: catalysis of a post-translational modification crucial for life

Covering: up to 2013. Although holo-acyl carrier protein synthase, AcpS, a phosphopantetheinyl transferase (PPTase), was characterized in the 1960s, it was not until the publication of the landmark paper by Lambalot et al. in 1996 that PPTases garnered wide-spread attention being classified as a distinct enzyme superfamily. In the past two decades an increasing number of papers have been published on PPTases ranging from identification, characterization, structure determination, mutagenesis, inhibition, and engineering in synthetic biology. In this review, we comprehensively discuss all current knowledge on this class of enzymes that post-translationally install a 4'-phosphopantetheine arm on various carrier proteins.

A mammalian cytochrome fused to a chloroplast transit peptide is a functional haemoprotein and is imported into isolated chloroplasts

The small subunit of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) is a major chloroplast stromal protein that is cytosolically synthesized as a precursor with an N-terminal extension, known as the transit sequence or transit peptide (Tp). The Tp is essential for the post-translational uptake of the precursor by the chloroplast. The Tp is thought to influence the conformation of the precursor protein and to facilitate polypeptide translocation across the chloroplast envelope barrier via a Tp-selective translocon. To address these issues we have devised a novel strategy to generate substrate amounts of a chloroplast targeting sequence as a fusion with the chromogenic globular domain of cytochrome b(5) (Cyt). The chimaeric protein is an ideal probe for investigating the conformation of a preprotein and events surrounding protein import into isolated chloroplasts. The Cyt of liver endoplasmic reticulum was fused at its N-terminus with the Tp of the small subunit of Rubisco of Pisum sativum (pea). To enhance its production by clearance from the cytoplasm of Escherichia coli, the chimaera was engineered by further N-terminal linkage of a prokaryotic secretory signal. Expression of this tripartite fusion resulted in mg quantities of the signal sequence-processed Tp-Cyt protein, which was eventually targeted to the membranes. The chromogenic nature of the chimaera and its localization to the bacterial membrane facilitated the biochemical isolation of the precursor in a soluble and functional form. The purified preprotein displayed spectral and enzymic properties that were indistinguishable from the native parental Cyt, implying an absence of observable influence of the Tp on the conformation of the haemoprotein. The chimaeric precursor was imported into the stroma of the isolated chloroplasts in a dose-dependent manner. Import was also strongly dependent upon exogenously supplied ATP. The stromally imported chimaeric precursor protein was processed to a size characteristic of Cyt.

Nuclear-encoded proteins target to the plastid in Toxoplasma gondii and Plasmodium falciparum

A vestigial, nonphotosynthetic plastid has been identified recently in protozoan parasites of the phylum Apicomplexa. The apicomplexan plastid, or "apicoplast," is indispensable, but the complete sequence of both the Plasmodium falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii apicoplast genomes has offered no clue as to what essential metabolic function(s) this organelle might perform in parasites. To investigate possible functions of the apicoplast, we sought to identify nuclear-encoded genes whose products are targeted to the apicoplast in Plasmodium and Toxoplasma. We describe here nuclear genes encoding ribosomal proteins S9 and L28 and the fatty acid biosynthetic enzymes acyl carrier protein (ACP), beta-ketoacyl-ACP synthase III (FabH), and beta-hydroxyacyl-ACP dehydratase (FabZ). These genes show high similarity to plastid homologues, and immunolocalization of S9 and ACP verifies that the proteins accumulate in the plastid. All the putatively apicoplast-targeted proteins bear N-terminal presequences consistent with plastid targeting, and the ACP presequence is shown to be sufficient to target a recombinant green fluorescent protein reporter to the apicoplast in transgenic T. gondii. Localization of ACP, and very probably FabH and FabZ, in the apicoplast implicates fatty acid biosynthesis as a likely function of the apicoplast. Moreover, inhibition of P. falciparum growth by thiolactomycin, an inhibitor of FabH, indicates a vital role for apicoplast fatty acid biosynthesis. Because the fatty acid biosynthesis genes identified here are of a plastid/bacterial type, and distinct from those of the equivalent pathway in animals, fatty acid biosynthesis is potentially an excellent target for therapeutics directed against malaria, toxoplasmosis, and other apicomplexan-mediated diseases.

POSTTRANSLATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF PHOTOSYNTHETIC METALLOPROTEINS

The assembly of chloroplast metalloproteins requires biochemical catalysis. Assembly factors involved in the biosynthesis of metalloproteins might be required to synthesize, chaperone, or transport the cofactor; modify or chaperone the apoprotein; or catalyze cofactor-protein association. Genetic and biochemical approaches have been applied to the study of the assembly of chloroplast iron-sulfur centers, cytochromes, plastocyanin, and the manganese center of photosystem II. These have led to the discovery of NifS-homologues and cysteine desulfhydrase for iron-sulfur center assembly, six loci (CCS1-CCS5, ccsA) for c-type cytochrome assembly, four loci for cytochrome b6 assembly (CCB1-CCB4), the CtpA protease, which is involved in pre-D1 processing, and the PCY2 locus, which is involved in holoplastocyanin accumulation. New assembly factors are likely to be discovered via the study of assembly-defective mutants of Arabidopsis, cyanobacteria, Chlamydomonas, maize, and via the functional analysis of candidate cofactor metabolizing components identified in the genome databases.

Enzymatic product formation impairs both the chloroplast receptor-binding function as well as translocation competence of the NADPH: protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase, a nuclear-encoded plastid precursor protein

The key enzyme of chlorophyll biosynthesis in higher plants, the light-dependent NADPH:protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase (POR, EC 1.6.99.1), is a nuclear-encoded plastid protein. Its posttranslational transport into plastids of barley depends on the intraplastidic availability of one of its substrates, protochlorophyllide (PChlide). The precursor of POR (pPOR), synthesized from a corresponding full-length barley cDNA clone by coupling in vitro transcription and translation, is enzymatically active and converts PChlide to chlorophyllide (Chlide) in a light- and NADPH-dependent manner. Chlorophyllide formed catalytically remains tightly but noncovalently bound to the precursor protein and stabilizes a transport-incompetent conformation of pPOR. As shown by in vitro processing experiments, the chloroplast transit peptide in the Chlide-pPOR complex appears to be masked and thus is unable to physically interact with the outer plastid envelope membrane. In contrast, the chloroplast transit peptide in the naked pPOR (without its substrates and its product attached to it) and in the pPOR-substrate complexes, such as pPOR-PChlide or pPOR-PChlide-NADPH, seems to react independently of the mature region of the polypeptide, and thus is able to bind to the plastid envelope. When envelope-bound pPOR-PChlide-NADPH complexes were exposed to light during a short preincubation, the enzymatically produced Chlide slowed down the actual translocation step, giving rise to the sequential appearance of two partially processed translocation intermediates. However, ongoing translocation induced by feeding the chloroplasts delta-aminolevulinic acid, a precursor of PChlide, was able to override these two early blocks in translocation, suggesting that the plastid import machinery has a substantial capacity to denature a tightly folded, envelope-bound precursor protein. Together, our results show that pPOR with Chlide attached to it is impaired both in the ATP-dependent step of binding to a receptor protein component of the outer chloroplast envelope membrane, as well as in the PChlide-dependent step of precursor translocation.

Acyl carrier protein (ACP) import into chloroplasts. Covalent modification by a stromal holoACP synthase is stimulated by exogenously added CoA and inhibited by adenosine 3',5'-bisphosphate

During the import of the precursor for the acyl carrier protein (ACP) into chloroplasts, apoACP is converted to holoACP by the attachment of a phosphopantetheine group transferred from coenzyme A (CoA) by a chloroplast holoACP synthase [Fernandez, M. and Lamppa, G. (1990) Acyl carrier protein import into chloroplasts does not require the phosphopantetheine: evidence for a chloroplast holoACP synthase, Plant Cell 2, 195-206]. Here it is shown that exogenous addition of CoA to intact chloroplasts in the import assay stimulates the conversion of apoACP to holoACP. If adenosine 3',5'-bisphosphate [Ado(3',5')P2], the byproduct of the transfer reaction, was also included the extent of conversion was greatly reduced. CoA has its effect after ACP precursor (pre-ACP) import and proteolytic removal of the transit peptide, thus indicating that the chloroplast holoACP synthase resides in the stroma where fatty acid synthase is found. When Ado(3',5')P2 was added alone to the import assay, it inhibited the synthesis of holoACP. Inhibition of the conversion of apo- to holoACP with Ado(3',5')P2 made it possible to examine whether the holoform of preACP could be imported into chloroplasts. Pre-apoACP was synthesized in Escherichia coli and shown to be competent for import in an ATP- and temperature-dependent manner. A partially purified chloroplast holoACP synthase converted 60-90% of the pre-apoACP to pre-holoACP. Pre-holoACP incubated with chloroplasts in the presence of Ado(3',5')P2 yielded > 60% holoACP, whereas the control reaction with pre-apoACP gave primarily apoACP. Hence the phosphopantetheine prosthetic group of ACP does not block precursor movement through the translocation apparatus of the chloroplast envelope.

Developmental regulation of an acyl carrier protein gene promoter in vegetative and reproductive tissues

The expression of an Arabidopsis acyl carrier protein (ACP) gene promoter has been examined in transgenic tobacco plants by linking it to the reporter gene beta-glucuronidase (GUS). Fluorometric analysis showed that the ACP gene promoter was most active in developing seeds. Expression was also high in roots, but significantly lower in young leaves and downregulated upon their maturation. Etiolated and light-grown seedlings showed the same level of GUS activity, indicating that this promoter is not tightly regulated by light. Histochemical studies revealed that expression was usually highest in apical/meristematic zones of vegetative tissues. Young flowers (ca. 1 cm in length) showed GUS staining in nearly all cell types, however, cell-specific patterns emerged in more mature flowers. The ACP gene promoter was active in the stigma and transmitting tissue of the style, as well as in the tapetum of the anther, developing pollen, and ovules. The results provide evidence that this ACP gene is regulated in a complex manner and is responsive to the array of signals which accompany cell differentiation, and a demand for fatty acids and lipids, during organogenesis.

The barley genes Acl1 and Acl3 encoding acyl carrier proteins I and III are located on different chromosomes

Acyl carrier protein (ACP) is an essential cofactor for plant fatty acid synthesis. Three isoforms occur in barley seedling leaves. The genes Acl1 and Acl3 coding for the predominant ACP I and the minor ACP III, respectively, have been cloned and characterized as has a full-length cDNA for ACP III. Both genes, extending over more than 2.5 kb, have a conserved mosaic structure of four exons and three introns which result in mRNAs of ca. 900 bases. Alignment of the DNA sequences demonstrates that homology is restricted to the two exons coding for the mature protein whereas the remaining segments of the genes including the transit peptide-coding domains lack homology. Southern blot analyses demonstrate that Acl1 and Acl3 represent single copy genes located on chromosomes 7 and 1, respectively. Primer extension analyses identified multiple transcription start sites in both genes. The promoter regions are remarkably different; that of Acl3 resembles those for mammalian housekeeping genes in having a high G + C content plus three copies of an RNA polymerase II recognition GC element and in lacking correctly positioned TATA boxes. These features are in accordance with the hypothesis that Acl1 is specifically expressed in leaf tissue whereas Acl3 is a constitutively expressed gene.

Metal-ion-center assembly of ferredoxin and plastocyanin in isolated chloroplasts

Most chloroplastic proteins are cytosolically synthesized and posttranslationally transported to their proper locations. Two examples of this group of proteins are ferredoxin and plastocyanin, both of which are metal-containing components of the photosynthetic electron-transport chain. The import process for these two proteins includes the insertion of the metal ions to produce the holo forms of the proteins. We show here that in vitro translated precursor proteins of ferredoxin and plastocyanin are synthesized as apo forms and are assembled into their respective holo forms after being imported into isolated chloroplasts. We also provide evidence that only mature-sized proteins are competent to be assembled into holo forms.