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Wicke D, Neumann P, Gößringer M, Chernev A, Davydov S, Poehlein A, Daniel R, Urlaub H, Hartmann R, Ficner R, Stülke J. The previously uncharacterized RnpM (YlxR) protein modulates the activity of ribonuclease P in Bacillus subtilis in vitro. Nucleic Acids Res 2024; 52:1404-1419. [PMID: 38050972 PMCID: PMC10853771 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkad1171] [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: 07/28/2023] [Accepted: 11/22/2023] [Indexed: 12/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Even though Bacillus subtilis is one of the most studied organisms, no function has been identified for about 20% of its proteins. Among these unknown proteins are several RNA- and ribosome-binding proteins suggesting that they exert functions in cellular information processing. In this work, we have investigated the RNA-binding protein YlxR. This protein is widely conserved in bacteria and strongly constitutively expressed in B. subtilis suggesting an important function. We have identified the RNA subunit of the essential RNase P as the binding partner of YlxR. The main activity of RNase P is the processing of 5' ends of pre-tRNAs. In vitro processing assays demonstrated that the presence of YlxR results in reduced RNase P activity. Chemical cross-linking studies followed by in silico docking analysis and experiments with site-directed mutant proteins suggest that YlxR binds to the region of the RNase P RNA that is important for binding and cleavage of the pre-tRNA substrate. We conclude that the YlxR protein is a novel interaction partner of the RNA subunit of RNase P that serves to finetune RNase P activity to ensure appropriate amounts of mature tRNAs for translation. We rename the YlxR protein RnpM for RNase P modulator.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dennis Wicke
- Department of General Microbiology, GZMB, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Piotr Neumann
- Department of Molecular Structural Biology, GZMB, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Markus Gößringer
- Institute for the Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany
| | - Aleksandar Chernev
- Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Swetlana Davydov
- Institute for the Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany
| | - Anja Poehlein
- Department of Genomic and Applied Microbiology & Göttingen Genomics Laboratory, GZMB, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Rolf Daniel
- Department of Genomic and Applied Microbiology & Göttingen Genomics Laboratory, GZMB, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Henning Urlaub
- Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry, Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Göttingen, Germany
- Institute of Clinical Chemistry, GZMB, University Medical Centre Göttingen, Germany
- Cluster of Excellence “Multiscale Bioimaging: from Molecular Machines to Networks of Excitable Cells” (MBExC), Georg-August-University Göttingen, Germany
| | - Roland K Hartmann
- Institute for the Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany
| | - Ralf Ficner
- Department of Molecular Structural Biology, GZMB, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Jörg Stülke
- Department of General Microbiology, GZMB, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
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