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Tsui HCT, Joseph M, Zheng JJ, Perez AJ, Manzoor I, Rued BE, Richardson JD, Branny P, Doubravová L, Massidda O, Winkler ME. Negative regulation of MurZ and MurA underlies the essentiality of GpsB- and StkP-mediated protein phosphorylation in Streptococcus pneumoniae D39. Mol Microbiol 2023; 120:351-383. [PMID: 37452010 PMCID: PMC10530524 DOI: 10.1111/mmi.15122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2023] [Revised: 06/27/2023] [Accepted: 06/28/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023]
Abstract
GpsB links peptidoglycan synthases to other proteins that determine the shape of the respiratory pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus; Spn) and other low-GC Gram-positive bacteria. GpsB is also required for phosphorylation of proteins by the essential StkP(Spn) Ser/Thr protein kinase. Here we report three classes of frequently arising chromosomal duplications (≈21-176 genes) containing murZ (MurZ-family homolog of MurA) or murA that suppress ΔgpsB or ΔstkP. These duplications arose from three different repeated sequences and demonstrate the facility of pneumococcus to modulate gene dosage of numerous genes. Overproduction of MurZ or MurA alone or overproduction of MurZ caused by ΔkhpAB mutations suppressed ΔgpsB or ΔstkP phenotypes to varying extents. ΔgpsB and ΔstkP were also suppressed by MurZ amino-acid changes distant from the active site, including one in commonly studied laboratory strains, and by truncation or deletion of the homolog of IreB(ReoM). Unlike in other Gram-positive bacteria, MurZ is predominant to MurA in pneumococcal cells. However, ΔgpsB and ΔstkP were not suppressed by ΔclpCP, which did not alter MurZ or MurA amounts. These results support a model in which regulation of MurZ and MurA activity, likely by IreB(Spn), is the only essential requirement for StkP-mediated protein phosphorylation in exponentially growing D39 pneumococcal cells.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Merrin Joseph
- Department of Biology, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Jiaqi J. Zheng
- Department of Biology, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Amilcar J. Perez
- Department of Biology, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Irfan Manzoor
- Department of Biology, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Britta E. Rued
- Department of Biology, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - John D. Richardson
- Department of Biology, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Pavel Branny
- Institute of Microbiology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Linda Doubravová
- Institute of Microbiology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Orietta Massidda
- Department of Cellular, Computational, and Integrative Biology, University of Trento, Italy
| | - Malcolm E. Winkler
- Department of Biology, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA
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