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1 Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Division of Microbial Science and Technology, Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Graduate School, Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan
2 Laboratory of Functional Food Design, Department of Functional Metabolic Design, Bio-Architecture Center, Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan
Correspondence
Kenji Sonomoto
sonomoto{at}agr.kyushu-u.ac.jp
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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Previous biochemical and structural analyses have demonstrated that GrpE is a homodimer that consists of the following three domains: paired N-terminal
-helices (residues 40–88), four-helix bundles (residues 89–137) and C-terminal β-domains (residues 139–197) (Harrison, 2003
; Harrison et al., 1997
; Schonfeld et al., 1995
). In addition, it has been shown that residues 1–33, when unstructured and removed for crystallization, are responsible for the interaction with the substrate-binding domain of DnaK and the release of substrate proteins from DnaK (Brehmer et al., 2004
).
Many molecular chaperones are heat-shock proteins (Hsps) and play an important role in the protection of the host cell against various stresses, including high-temperature stress (Lindquist & Craig, 1988
). Moreover, they have housekeeping functions and are essential for cellular homeostasis, even at physiological temperatures. For example, DnaK plays a key role in cell division, chromosome segregation and maintenance of low-copy-number plasmids. Bukau & Walker (1989)
reported that deletion of dnaK affected both cell division and cell growth, and the defects were suppressed by the overexpression of FtsZ, a cell-division-related protein, suggesting functional interaction of DnaK and FtsZ. Some evidence exists that for the proper functioning of the cell-division machinery, DnaK and DnaJ proteins have to be present at appropriate levels. Physiological consequences of DnaK and DnaJ overexpression in E. coli have been reported (Blum et al., 1992
). DnaK overexpression results in a defect in cell division and growth, but DnaJ overexpression does not. The effect of DnaK overexpression was found to be partially suppressed by co-expression of DnaJ. However, the precise role of the DnaK chaperone system in cell division and the physiological consequences of GrpE overexpression remain unclear.
In this report, we provide evidence that the ratio of GrpE, but not DnaJ, to DnaK is crucial for functionality of the DnaK chaperone system and cell-division machinery in vivo and in vitro. Overexpression of GrpE resulted in filamentous morphologies. Excess amounts of GrpE inhibited the chaperone activity of DnaK, leading to accumulation of protein aggregates in cells and irregular localization of FtsZ.
| METHODS |
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DE3 into MC4100 in order to overexpress target genes under the control of the T7 promoter; this was performed using a
DE3 lysogenization kit (Novagen).
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Using a site-directed mutagenesis kit (Quick Change, Qiagen), the primers G122D-S1 and G122D-A1 (5'-GCG ATG GTT GAA GAC ATT GAG CTG ACG CTG-3' and 5'-CAG CGT CAG CTC AAT GTC TTC AAC CAT CGC-3', respectively) and pGRPE(T7) as a template, a plasmid was constructed. This plasmid carried the grpE gene with the G122D point mutation (grpE-G122D), and Gly at amino acid 122 was substituted by Asp. The resulting plasmid was termed pG122D (Table 1
). Since pGRPE(T7) was used as a template, the grpE-G122D gene was encoded under the control of the T7 promoter.
A plasmid carrying the N-terminal GFP–grpE fusion gene (gfp–N–grpE) was constructed by splice-overlap-extension (SOE) PCR (Horton et al., 1989
). The gfp and grpE genes were amplified using the following primer sets: SOE-GFP-S1 and SOE-GFP-A1 (5'-GCG AAA AAA ACG CGG AGA AAT TCA TGA GTA AAG GAG AAG AAC-3' and 5'-GCG TTT TCT GTT CTT TAC TAC TCA TTT TGT ATA GTT CAT CCA TGC-3') and SOE-GRPE-S1 and SOE-GRPE-A1 (5'-GCA TGG ATG AAC TAT ACA AAA TGA GTA GTA AAG AAC AGA AAA CGC-3' and 5'-TTC CTG TGA AAC CGC TGC GCG AGA GTG TG-3'), respectively. The PCR template for the gfp gene was pGreen (Table 1
) (Miller & Lindow, 1997
). SOE-GFP-S1 contained a region upstream of the start codon for the grpE gene (underlined) in order that the ribosome-binding site of grpE could be used. SOE-GFP-A1 and SOE-GRPE-S1 contained a sequence corresponding to the 5' region of the grpE gene (underlined) and a sequence corresponding to the 3' region of the gfp gene (underlined), respectively. Finally, the gfp–N–grpE gene was amplified using the primer set SOE-GFP-S1/SOE-GRPE-A1. The amplified fragment was ligated into a pGEM-T vector under the control of the lac promoter. The resulting plasmid was termed pGFP-N-GRPE (Table 1
).
Cell morphology.
E. coli MC4100 cells were transformed with the self-ligated pGEM-T vector (pGEM), pGRPE(T7), pG122D, pGreen and pGFP-N-GRPE, and the resulting transformants were named MC4100GEM, MC4100GRPE, MC4100G122D, MC4100GFP and MC4100GFP-N-GRPE, respectively (Table 1
). These transformants were grown on Luria–Bertani (LB) agar plates containing 50 µg ampicillin ml–1 overnight. Single colonies of the respective transformants were cultured in LB medium containing 50 µg ampicillin ml–1 without IPTG, since leaky expression of the respective genes was observed. The exponential-phase cells (OD600 0.8–1.2) were examined under a microscope (H550L, Nikon). GFP fluorescence was monitored with a GFP-specific filter to visualize the localization of GFP–N–GrpE. The DNA of the E. coli cells was stained with 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI), as described elsewhere (Hiraga et al., 1998
). The DAPI-stained samples were observed under a fluorescence microscope with a DAPI-specific filter.
SDS–PAGE and Western blotting.
Cell extracts of the E. coli transformants were prepared as described previously (Sugimoto et al., 2007
) and subjected to 12 % (w/v) SDS–PAGE. The gel was stained with Coomassie brilliant blue (CBB) R-250 or transferred onto a PVDF membrane (Atto) and subsequently immunoblotted using an anti-GrpE-antibody (StressGen Biotechnologies), an anti-DnaK antibody (laboratory collection) and an anti-FtsZ antibody (a gift from Dr M. Wachi, Tokyo Institute of Technology). Detection was performed using the ECL detection kit (GE Healthcare) according to the manufacturer's protocol.
Monitoring of E. coli cell growth.
The E. coli transformants MC4100GEM, MC4100GRPE and MC4100G122D were grown at 37 °C in LB liquid medium containing 50 µg ampicillin ml–1. The OD600 of the culture was measured at the indicated times. The growth of the transformants was also examined on LB agar plates. When the OD600 of the culture in LB liquid medium reached 1.0, the culture was serially diluted as indicated, and 5 µl aliquots were spotted on LB agar plates containing 50 µg ampicillin ml–1 with or without 0.5 mM IPTG. The plates were incubated at 37 °C for 16 h.
Complementation assay.
Thermosensitive E. coli DA259 (Table 1
) harbouring the grpE mutation (provided by Dr C. Georgopoulos, Centre Médical Universitaire, Switzerland) was transformed with the following plasmids: pGEM, pGRPE(lac) and pGFP-N-GRPE. The resulting E. coli transformants, DA259GEM, DA259GRPE and DA259GFP–N–GRPE, respectively (Table 1
), were grown in LB medium with 50 µg ampicillin ml–1 at 30 °C. When the OD600 reached 1.0, the cultures were serially diluted as indicated, and 5 µl aliquots were spotted on LB agar plates. The plates were incubated at 30 and 44 °C for 16 h.
Luciferase-refolding activity assay.
Refolding of chemically denatured firefly luciferase was carried out as described previously (Sugimoto et al., 2007
), with some modifications. The protein concentrations used were 5 µM (DnaK), 1 µM (DnaJ), 1–50 µM (GrpE) and 10 nM (luciferase). The refolding reaction was carried out at 30 °C for 30 min.
Cell-free extracts from the E. coli transformants MC4100GEM, MC4100GRPE and MC4100G122D were used as folding enzymes instead of the purified chaperone proteins. The cell-free extract was prepared as follows. E. coli cells were grown at 37 °C in LB medium under shaken conditions. When the OD600 of the culture reached 1.0, the cells were harvested by centrifugation at 9000 g for 20 min and stored at–30 °C until further use. The cells were resuspended in phosphate buffer containing 10 mM sodium phosphate (pH 6.5), 1 mM EDTA, 20 % (w/v) sucrose and 1 mg lysozyme ml–1 (Seikagaku Corporation) and incubated on ice for 30 min. After cell disruption by sonication with a Sonifier cell disruptor 350 (Branson Ultrasonics) (output 3, 30 % duty, 10 s, 2 cycles), the cell debris was removed by centrifugation at 15 000 g for 20 min, and the supernatant was collected. Using the cell-free extract instead of purified chaperones, the luciferase-refolding reaction was carried out as described previously (Sugimoto et al., 2007
). The protein concentration of the cell-free extract used was 10 mg ml–1. At the indicated times, aliquots of the sample were withdrawn and the luciferase activity was measured.
Isolation of protein aggregates.
Protein aggregates from E. coli cells grown at 37 °C in LB medium were isolated and analysed according to a previously described protocol (Sugimoto et al., 2008
).
Indirect immunofluorescence microscopy.
Indirect immunofluorescence microscopy was carried out according to the procedure of Hiraga et al. (1998)
. To detect FtsZ proteins in MC4100GEM, MC4100GRPE and the dnaK deletion mutant BM271 (Table 1
), anti-FtsZ antibody and Cy3-conjugated goat anti-rabbit IgG (GE Healthcare) were used as primary and secondary antibodies, respectively. The immunostained samples were observed under a fluorescence microscope.
| RESULTS AND DISCUSSION |
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Effect of GrpE overexpression on the growth rate of E. coli
The E. coli transformants were precultured in LB medium at 37 °C overnight and then inoculated into fresh LB medium. Their OD600 was monitored at the indicated times (Fig. 2a
). MC4100G122D showed a similar growth profile to that of MC4100GEM. In contrast, the lag phase of MC410GRPE was longer than that of the other transformants (Fig. 2a
); this indicated that overexpression of wild-type GrpE delayed the growth of the host cells. After 5 h, MC4100GRPE grew rapidly with a similar growth rate to that of other transformants. At this stage of growth, the expression level of GrpE was much lower than that at the start of culture, and this led to wild-type growth rates and a decrease in the number of elongated cells (data not shown). Bukau and colleagues have reported that strong overexpression of GrpE in grpE mutant cells leads to decreased colony formation (Brehmer et al., 2004
). We also tested the colony-formation ability of these transformants. As in the results from Bukau's group, MC4100GRPE showed a much lower colony-formation activity in the presence of 0.5 mM IPTG than MC4100GEM (Fig. 2b
). In contrast, MC4100G122D did not display defective colony-formation activity; this is consistent with the results described above (Fig. 2a
). Notably, in the absence of IPTG, there was no difference in colony formation among these three transformants (Fig. 2c
), even though a significant delay in growth was observed in the case of MC4100GRPE cultured in LB liquid medium in the absence of IPTG (Fig. 2a
). This discrepancy may result from the fact that the expression level of GrpE in E. coli cells cultured on LB agar without IPTG was much less than that in LB liquid medium without IPTG (data not shown). Furthermore, an excess of GrpE appears to be deleterious to the chaperone function of the DnaK system (Grimshaw et al., 2005
); this may be responsible for the defects in cell division, cell growth and colony formation.
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First, we confirmed that GFP–N–GrpE can complement the function of GrpE in vivo, because we realized that the GFP moiety might affect the activity and conformation of GrpE. As shown in Fig. 3(a)
, DA259GEM (vector-control strain) did not grow at 44 °C, whereas DA259GRPE (intact GrpE-expressing strain) and DA259GFP–N–GRPE (GFP–N–GrpE-expressing strain) did. These results indicated that GFP–N–GrpE expression rescued the growth of the grpE mutant DA259 at 44 °C, as observed in the case of intact GrpE expression, and that GFP–N–GrpE functioned as a co-chaperone in a similar manner to intact GrpE.
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Third, we focused on the distribution of inclusion bodies, GFP–N–GrpE and nucleoids, since it was speculated that inclusion bodies might be relocalized by nucleoids. The GFP–N–GrpE fluorescence overlapped again with a dark dot corresponding to inclusion body (Fig. 4a
, b). Furthermore, GFP–N–GrpE fluorescence was observed in the region where the nucleoid was absent (Fig. 4b–d
). It has been reported that several DnaK molecules are localized on the surface of an inclusion body (Carrio & Villaverde, 2005
) and that GrpE interacts strongly with the nucleotide-free or ADP-bound state of DnaK (Harrison, 2003
; Harrison et al., 1997
; Schonfeld et al., 1995
). These earlier reports raise the possibility that GrpE colocalizes with DnaK on the surface of the inclusion body in MC4100GRPE (Fig. 4e
). Additionally, a pull-down assay using the cell-free extract of His-tag-fused GrpE-overexpressing cells demonstrated that DnaK was bound to His-tag-fused GrpE (data not shown). Since the results indicated that most of the overexpressed GrpE proteins were detected in the soluble fraction (data not shown), it was concluded that interaction among GrpE, DnaK and inclusion bodies was transient.
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Effect of a high GrpE concentration on the chaperone activity of the DnaK system
In vitro experiments using purified DnaK, DnaJ and GrpE proteins have demonstrated that a concentration of GrpE that is fivefold that of DnaK inhibits the chaperone activity of DnaK (Packschies et al., 1997
), suggesting that a balance between ATPase stimulation and acceleration of nucleotide exchange by DnaJ and GrpE is crucial for DnaK-assisted protein folding. Here, we examined the effect of a high concentration of GrpE on the chaperone activity of DnaK in vitro.
A dose–response curve demonstrated that the maximum activity yield of refolded luciferase was obtained at a GrpE concentration of
1 µM (Fig. 5a
). Higher GrpE concentrations (>5 µM) resulted in lower amounts of reactivated luciferase; this is consistent with an earlier report (Packschies et al., 1997
). Grimshaw et al. (2005)
reported that GrpE-G122D, even at a high concentration (4 µM), only marginally assisted DnaK in the refolding of denatured proteins (luciferase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase), and in the presence of ADP, GrpE-G122D, in contrast to wild-type GrpE, did not apparently form a complex with DnaK.
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23 % of the native activity after incubation for 2 h. The reason for the lower refolding yield than with purified proteins (Fig. 5a
In addition, the amount of aggregated protein in the MC4100GRPE cell-free extract was compared with those of the MC4100GEM and MC4100G122D extracts (Fig. 5c
). As expected, a large amount of protein aggregate accumulated for MC4100GRPE compared with the other extracts. In all cases, a small amount of GrpE was detected in the insoluble fraction by Western blotting (data not shown). The two major bands seemed to be OmpF and OmpA, both of which are usually identified as major insoluble proteins (Fig. 5c
) (Mogk et al., 1999
).
These results clearly indicated that overexpression of GrpE suppressed the activities of the folding enzymes in a cell. One explanation is that the activity of the DnaK chaperone system might be inhibited by the change in the balance between the ATP-bound and the ADP-bound state of DnaK (Packschies et al., 1997
). Under physiological conditions, the synergistic action of the two co-chaperones DnaJ and GrpE controls the steady-state distribution between the high-affinity state (ADP-bound state) and low-affinity state (ATP-bound state) of DnaK and provides the substrate proteins with an opportunity to be efficiently folded into their correct structure (Fig. 6a
). Under GrpE-overexpressing conditions, the balanced distribution of these states shifts towards the low-affinity state (ATP-bound state or nucleotide-free state), which decreases the fraction of substrate bound to DnaK in the high-affinity state; this drastically decreases the folding yield (Fig. 6b
) (Grimshaw et al., 2005
).
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An FtsZ ring was observed as a red band at the centre of the MC4100GEM cell (Fig. 7
). In contrast, the FtsZ ring was barely observed at potential division sites of the MC4100GRPE cell. Instead, several dots of FtsZ were observed at the poles and at non-specific positions in the filaments. The abnormal localization of FtsZ was also observed in the dnaK deletion mutant (BM271). Uehara et al. (2001)
have reported that HscA, an Hsp70 family protein, is involved in the localization of FtsZ in E. coli K-12. In addition, the abnormal cell-division phenotype of the hscA knockout mutant was partially complemented by the plasmid-borne dnaK gene, suggesting that the roles of DnaK in cell division partially overlap with those of HscA (Uehara et al., 2001
). Their report supports our conclusion that the loss in functionality of the DnaK chaperone system by GrpE overexpression leads to defective cell division via an abnormality in the cell-division machinery, including the FtsZ ring. To our knowledge, this is the first report that demonstrates the direct visualization of the dependence of FtsZ-ring formation upon DnaK. In contrast to GrpE, DnaJ overexpression did not affect cell division and growth in E. coli (Blum et al., 1992
). The difference in contribution between GrpE and DnaJ should be further examined. The design of chemical compounds that regulate the function of the DnaK chaperone cycles will be one possible way to inhibit the growth of pathogens or enhance the viability of bacteria used in the food industry or in fermentation.
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| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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Edited by: H. Ingmer
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Received 6 February 2008;
revised 13 April 2008;
accepted 21 April 2008.
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