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Machuca MA, Roujeinikova A. Method for Efficient Refolding and Purification of Chemoreceptor Ligand Binding Domain. J Vis Exp 2017. [PMID: 29286481 DOI: 10.3791/57092] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Identification of natural ligands of chemoreceptors and structural studies aimed at elucidation of the molecular basis of the ligand specificity can be greatly facilitated by the production of milligram amounts of pure, folded ligand binding domains. Attempts to heterologously express periplasmic ligand binding domains of bacterial chemoreceptors in Escherichia coli (E. coli) often result in their targeting into inclusion bodies. Here, a method is presented for protein recovery from inclusion bodies, its refolding and purification, using the periplasmic dCACHE ligand binding domain of Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) chemoreceptor Tlp3 as an example. The approach involves expression of the protein of interest with a cleavable His6-tag, isolation and urea-mediated solubilisation of inclusion bodies, protein refolding by urea depletion, and purification by means of affinity chromatography, followed by tag removal and size-exclusion chromatography. The circular dichroism spectroscopy is used to confirm the folded state of the pure protein. It has been demonstrated that this protocol is generally useful for production of milligram amounts of dCACHE periplasmic ligand binding domains of other bacterial chemoreceptors in a soluble and crystallisable form.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mayra A Machuca
- Infection and Immunity Program, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute; Department of Microbiology, Monash University;
| | - Anna Roujeinikova
- Infection and Immunity Program, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute; Department of Microbiology, Monash University; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University;
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Machuca MA, Johnson KS, Liu YC, Steer DL, Ottemann KM, Roujeinikova A. Helicobacter pylori chemoreceptor TlpC mediates chemotaxis to lactate. Sci Rep 2017; 7:14089. [PMID: 29075010 PMCID: PMC5658362 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-14372-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2017] [Accepted: 10/06/2017] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
It is recently appreciated that many bacterial chemoreceptors have ligand-binding domains (LBD) of the dCACHE family, a structure with two PAS-like subdomains, one membrane-proximal and the other membrane-distal. Previous studies had implicated only the membrane-distal subdomain in ligand recognition. Here, we report the 2.2 Å resolution crystal structure of dCACHE LBD of the Helicobacter pylori chemoreceptor TlpC. H. pylori tlpC mutants are outcompeted by wild type during stomach colonisation, but no ligands had been mapped to this receptor. The TlpC dCACHE LBD has two PAS-like subdomains, as predicted. The membrane-distal one possesses a long groove instead of a small, well-defined pocket. The membrane-proximal subdomain, in contrast, had a well-delineated pocket with a small molecule that we identified as lactate. We confirmed that amino acid residues making contact with the ligand in the crystal structure-N213, I218 and Y285 and Y249-were required for lactate binding. We determined that lactate is an H. pylori chemoattractant that is sensed via TlpC with a K D = 155 µM. Lactate is utilised by H. pylori, and our work suggests that this pathogen seeks out lactate using chemotaxis. Furthermore, our work suggests that dCACHE domain proteins can utilise both subdomains for ligand recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mayra A Machuca
- Infection and Immunity Program, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia
- Department of Microbiology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia
| | - Kevin S Johnson
- Department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA
| | - Yu C Liu
- Department of Microbiology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia
| | - David L Steer
- Monash Biomedical Proteomics Facility, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia
| | - Karen M Ottemann
- Department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA.
| | - Anna Roujeinikova
- Infection and Immunity Program, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia.
- Department of Microbiology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia.
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia.
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