Non-bilayer lipids stimulate the activity of the reconstituted bacterial protein translocase

To determine the phospholipid requirement of the preprotein translocase in vitro, the Escherichia coli SecYEG complex was purified in a delipidated form using the detergent dodecyl maltoside. SecYEG was reconstituted into liposomes composed of defined synthetic phospholipids, and proteoliposomes were analyzed for their preprotein translocation and SecA translocation ATPase activity. The activity strictly required the presence of anionic phospholipids, whereas the non-bilayer lipid phosphatidylethanolamine was found stimulatory. The latter effect could also be induced by dioleoylglycerol, a lipid that adopts a non-bilayer conformation. Phosphatidylethanolamine derivatives that prefer the bilayer state were unable to stimulate translocation. In the absence of SecG, activity was reduced, but the phospholipid requirement was unaltered. Remarkably, non-bilayer lipids were found essential for the activity of the Bacillus subtilis SecYEG complex. Optimal activity required a mixture of anionic and non-bilayer lipids at concentrations that correspond to concentrations found in the natural membrane.

Phosphatidylethanolamine mediates insertion of the catalytic domain of leader peptidase in membranes

Leader peptidase is an integral membrane protein of E. coli and it catalyses the removal of most signal peptides from translocated precursor proteins. In this study it is shown that when the transmembrane anchors are removed in vivo, the remaining catalytic domain can bind to inner and outer membranes of E. coli. Furthermore, the purified catalytic domain binds to inner membrane vesicles and vesicles composed of purified inner membrane lipids with comparable efficiency. It is shown that the interaction is caused by penetration of a part of the catalytic domain between the lipids. Penetration is mediated by phosphatidylethanolamine, the most abundant lipid in E. coli, and does not seem to depend on electrostatic interactions. A hydrophobic segment around the catalytically important residue serine 90 is required for the interaction with membranes.

In vitro membrane integration of leader peptidase depends on the Sec machinery and anionic phospholipids and can occur post-translationally

A cell-free system based on a lysate and membrane vesicles from Escherichia coli is used to study characteristics of the membrane integration reaction of the polytopic membrane protein leader peptidase (Lep). Integration into inverted inner membrane vesicles was detected by partial protection against externally added protease. Integration is most efficient when coupled to translation but can also occur post-translationally and depends on the action of the proteinaceous Sec machinery and availability of anionic phospholipids. Lep is the first example of a membrane protein without cleavable signal sequence which requires anionic lipids for integration in vitro.

Anionic phospholipids are determinants of membrane protein topology

The orientation of many membrane proteins is determined by the asymmetric distribution of positively charged amino acid residues in cytoplasmic and translocated loops. The positive-inside rule states that loops with large amounts of these residues tend to have cytoplasmic locations. Orientations of constructs derived from the inner membrane protein leader peptidase from Escherichia coli were found to depend on the anionic phospholipid content of the membrane. Lowering the contents of anionic phospholipids facilitated membrane passage of positively charged loops. On the other hand, elevated contents of acidic phospholipids in the membrane rendered translocation more sensitive to positively charged residues. The results demonstrate that anionic lipids are determinants of membrane protein topology and suggest that interactions between negatively charged phospholipids and positively charged amino acid residues contribute to the orientation of membrane proteins.

A quantitative assay to determine the amount of signal peptidase I in E. coli and the orientation of membrane vesicles

The number of Signal Peptidase I (SPasel) molecules per E. coli cell was determined using western blot techniques. Different strains were found to contain approximately 1000 SPasel molecules per cell during exponential growth. Based on the activity of SPasel in vitro it could be estimated that this amount is sufficient to process all translocated precursors. SPasel did not appear to be under growth phase dependent control, but was constitutively expressed. The quantitative western blot technique was also used to establish the orientation and intactness of isolated inner membrane vesicles.

Role for the outer membrane ferric siderophore receptor PupB in signal transduction across the bacterial cell envelope

The outer membrane protein PupB of Pseudomonas putida WCS358 facilitates transport of iron complexed to the siderophores pseudobactin BN8 and pseudobactin BN7 into the cell. Its synthesis is induced by the presence of these specific siderophores under iron limitation. The signal transduction pathway regulating siderophore-dependent expression of pupB was shown to consist of two regulatory proteins, PupI and PupR, and the PupB receptor itself. Mutational analysis of the regulatory genes suggested that PupI acts as a positive regulator of pupB transcription, whereas PupR modifies PupI activity dependent on the presence of pseudobactin BN8. PupI and PupR do not share homology with the classical bacterial two-component systems but display significant similarity to the FecI and FecR proteins of Escherichia coli involved in regulation of ferric dicitrate transport. The function of the PupB receptor in pupB regulation was studied by the use of chimeric receptor proteins composed of PupB and the ferric pseudobactin 358 receptor PupA. This experiment revealed that PupB is involved in the initiation of the signal transduction pathway, implying a so far unique role for an outer membrane protein in signal transduction.

The transit sequence mediates the specific interaction of the precursor of ferredoxin with chloroplast envelope membrane lipids

The interaction of the precursor of the chloroplast protein ferredoxin with membrane lipids was studied in monolayer experiments in order to investigate the possible involvement of membrane lipids in the protein translocation process. The precursor efficiently and specifically inserts into a total lipid extract of its biological target the outer envelope membrane of chloroplasts. This interaction is mediated by the transit sequence as it can also be observed for the chemically prepared transit peptide of ferredoxin but neither for the ferredoxin apoprotein nor holoprotein. Interactions with the individual chloroplast lipids, monogalactosyl-diacylglycerol, sulfoquinovosyl-diacylglycerol, and phosphatidylglycerol are predominantly involved which corresponds to the results obtained for transit peptide fragments of the small subunit of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (van't Hof, R., Demel, R. A., Keegstra, K., and De Kruijff, B. (1991) FEBS Lett. 291, 350-354). No efficient interaction was obtained with digalactosyl-diacylglycerol and phosphatidylcholine, suggesting that a loose lipid headgroup packing due to small lipid headgroups and/or electrostatic repulsions facilitates efficient insertion. The observed preferences for interaction of the precursor and transit peptide of ferredoxin for the chloroplast outer envelope membrane lipid extract and the presequence of cytochrome c oxidase subunit IV for the mitochondrial outer membrane lipid extract indicate that targeting sequence-lipid interactions contribute to organelle-specific protein targeting.