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Sarsani V, Aldikacti B, Zhao T, He S, Chien P, Flaherty P. Discovering Genetic Modulators of the Protein Homeostasis System through Multilevel Analysis. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.02.26.582154. [PMID: 38464212 PMCID: PMC10925187 DOI: 10.1101/2024.02.26.582154] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/12/2024]
Abstract
Every protein progresses through a natural lifecycle from birth to maturation to death; this process is coordinated by the protein homeostasis system. Environmental or physiological conditions trigger pathways that maintain the homeostasis of the proteome. An open question is how these pathways are modulated to respond to the many stresses that an organism encounters during its lifetime. To address this question, we tested how the fitness landscape changes in response to environmental and genetic perturbations using directed and massively parallel transposon mutagenesis in Caulobacter crescentus. We developed a general computational pipeline for the analysis of gene-by-environment interactions in transposon mutagenesis experiments. This pipeline uses a combination of general linear models (GLMs), statistical knockoffs, and a nonparametric Bayesian statistical model to identify essential genetic network components that are shared across environmental perturbations. This analysis allows us to quantify the similarity of proteotoxic environmental perturbations from the perspective of the fitness landscape. We find that essential genes vary more by genetic background than by environmental conditions, with limited overlap among mutant strains targeting different facets of the protein homeostasis system. We also identified 146 unique fitness determinants across different strains, with 19 genes common to at least two strains, showing varying resilience to proteotoxic stresses. Experiments exposing cells to a combination of genetic perturbations and dual environmental stressors show that perturbations that are quantitatively dissimilar from the perspective of the fitness landscape are likely to have a synergistic effect on the growth defect.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vishal Sarsani
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, 01002, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Berent Aldikacti
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, 01002, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Tingting Zhao
- Department of Information Systems and Analytics, Bryant University, Smithfield, 02917, RI, USA
- School of Health and Behavioral Sciences, Bryant University, Smithfield, 02917, RI, USA
| | - Shai He
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, 01002, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Peter Chien
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, 01002, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Patrick Flaherty
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, 01002, Massachusetts, USA
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Goodsell DS, Lasker K. Integrative visualization of the molecular structure of a cellular microdomain. Protein Sci 2023; 32:e4577. [PMID: 36700303 PMCID: PMC9926476 DOI: 10.1002/pro.4577] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2022] [Revised: 01/16/2023] [Accepted: 01/23/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
An integrative approach to visualization is used to create a visual snapshot of the structural biology of the polar microdomain of Caulobacter crescentus. The visualization is based on the current state of molecular and cellular knowledge of the microdomain and its cellular context. The collaborative process of researching and executing the visualization has identified aspects that are well determined and areas that require further study. The visualization is useful for dissemination, education, and outreach, and the study lays the groundwork for future 3D modeling and simulation of this well-studied example of a cellular condensate.
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Affiliation(s)
- David S Goodsell
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, USA.,Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics Protein Data Bank, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA.,Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA.,Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
| | - Keren Lasker
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, USA
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Omnus DJ, Fink MJ, Szwedo K, Jonas K. The Lon protease temporally restricts polar cell differentiation events during the Caulobacter cell cycle. eLife 2021; 10:73875. [PMID: 34693909 PMCID: PMC8545394 DOI: 10.7554/elife.73875] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2021] [Accepted: 09/22/2021] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
The highly conserved protease Lon has important regulatory and protein quality control functions in cells from the three domains of life. Despite many years of research on Lon, only a few specific protein substrates are known in most organisms. Here, we used a quantitative proteomics approach to identify novel substrates of Lon in the dimorphic bacterium Caulobacter crescentus. We focused our study on proteins involved in polar cell differentiation and investigated the developmental regulator StaR and the flagella hook length regulator FliK as specific Lon substrates in detail. We show that Lon recognizes these proteins at their C-termini, and that Lon-dependent degradation ensures their temporally restricted accumulation in the cell cycle phase when their function is needed. Disruption of this precise temporal regulation of StaR and FliK levels in a Δlon mutant contributes to defects in stalk biogenesis and motility, respectively, revealing a critical role of Lon in coordinating developmental processes with cell cycle progression. Our work underscores the importance of Lon in the regulation of complex temporally controlled processes by adjusting the concentrations of critical regulatory proteins. Furthermore, this study includes the first characterization of FliK in C. crescentus and uncovers a dual role of the C-terminal amino acids of FliK in protein function and degradation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Deike J Omnus
- Science for Life Laboratory and Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Matthias J Fink
- Science for Life Laboratory and Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Klaudia Szwedo
- Science for Life Laboratory and Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Kristina Jonas
- Science for Life Laboratory and Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
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