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Crystal structure of the Bacillus subtilis anti-alpha, global transcriptional regulator, Spx, in complex with the alpha C-terminal domain of RNA polymerase.

ABSTRACT: Spx, a global transcription regulator in Bacillus subtilis, interacts with the C-terminal domain of the alpha subunit (alphaCTD) of RNA polymerase to control gene expression under conditions of disulfide stress, which is sensed by disulfide bond formation between Spx residues C10 and C13. Here, we describe the crystal structure of the B. subtilis alphaCTD bound to oxidized Spx. Analysis of the complex reveals interactions between three regions of "anti-alpha" Spx and helix alpha1 and the "261" determinant of alphaCTD. The former contact could disrupt the interaction between alphaCTD and activator proteins or alter the DNA-bound conformation of alphaCTD, thereby repressing activator-stimulated transcription. Binding to the 261 determinant would prevent interaction between alphaCTD and region 4 of sigma(A). Intriguingly, the Spx disulfide bond is far from the alphaCTD-Spx interface, suggesting that Spx regulates transcription allosterically or through the redox-dependent creation or destruction of binding sites for additional components of the transcription machinery.

SUBMITTER: Newberry KJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1266077 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Crystal structure of the Bacillus subtilis anti-alpha, global transcriptional regulator, Spx, in complex with the alpha C-terminal domain of RNA polymerase.

Newberry Kate J KJ Nakano Shunji S Zuber Peter P Brennan Richard G RG

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20051025 44

Spx, a global transcription regulator in Bacillus subtilis, interacts with the C-terminal domain of the alpha subunit (alphaCTD) of RNA polymerase to control gene expression under conditions of disulfide stress, which is sensed by disulfide bond formation between Spx residues C10 and C13. Here, we describe the crystal structure of the B. subtilis alphaCTD bound to oxidized Spx. Analysis of the complex reveals interactions between three regions of "anti-alpha" Spx and helix alpha1 and the "261" d ...[more]

PMID: 16249335

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Project description:Bacillus subtilis forms biofilms in response to internal and external stimuli. I previously showed that the cysL deletion mutant was defective in biofilm formation, but the reason for this remains unidentified. CysL is a transcriptional activator of the cysJI operon, which encodes sulfite reductase, an enzyme involved in cysteine biosynthesis. Decreased production of sulfite reductase led to biofilm formation defects in the ΔcysL mutant. The ΔcysL mutation was suppressed by disrupting cysH operon genes, whose products function upstream of sulfite reductase in the cysteine biosynthesis pathway, indicating that defects in cysteine biosynthesis were not a direct cause for the defective biofilm formation observed in the ΔcysL mutant. The cysH gene encodes phosphoadenosine phosphosulfate reductase, which requires a reduced form of thioredoxin (TrxA) as an electron donor. High expression of trxA inhibited biofilm formation in the ΔcysL mutant but not in the wild-type strain. Northern blot analysis showed that trxA transcription was induced in the ΔcysL mutant in a disulfide stress-induced regulator Spx-dependent manner. On the basis of these results, I propose that the ΔcysL mutation causes phosphoadenosine phosphosulfate reductase to consume large amounts of reduced thioredoxin, inducing disulfide stress and activating Spx. The spx mutation restored biofilm formation to the ΔcysL mutant. The ΔcysL mutation reduced expression of the eps operon, which is required for exopolysaccharide production. Moreover, overexpression of the eps operon restored biofilm formation to the ΔcysL mutant. Taken together, these results suggest that the ΔcysL mutation activates Spx, which then inhibits biofilm formation through repression of the eps operon.IMPORTANCEBacillus subtilis has been studied as a model organism for biofilm formation. In this study, I explored why the cysL deletion mutant was defective in biofilm formation. I demonstrated that the ΔcysL mutation activated the disulfide stress response regulator Spx, which inhibits biofilm formation by repressing biofilm matrix genes. Homologs of Spx are highly conserved among Gram-positive bacteria with low G+C contents. In some pathogens, Spx is also reported to inhibit biofilm formation by repressing biofilm matrix genes, even though these genes and their regulation are quite different from those of B. subtilis Thus, the negative regulation of biofilm formation by Spx is likely to be well conserved across species and may be an appropriate target for control of biofilm formation.

Project description:Bacillus subtilis Spx is a global transcriptional regulator that is conserved among Gram-positive bacteria, in which Spx is required for preventing oxidatively induced proteotoxicity. Upon stress induction, Spx engages RNA polymerase (RNAP) through interaction with the C-terminal domain of the rpoA-encoded RNAP ? subunit (?CTD). Previous mutational analysis of rpoA revealed that substitutions of Y263 in ?CTD severely impaired Spx-activated transcription. Attempts to substitute alanine for ?CTD R261, R268, R289, E255, E298, and K294 were unsuccessful, suggesting that these residues are essential. To determine whether these RpoA residues were required for productive Spx-RNAP interaction, we ectopically expressed the putatively lethal rpoA mutant alleles in the rpoAY263C mutant, where "Y263C" indicates the amino acid change that results from mutation of the allele. By complementation analysis, we show that Spx-bound ?CTD amino acid residues are not essential for Spx-activated transcription in vivo but that R261A, E298A, and E255A mutants confer a partial defect in NaCl-stress induction of Spx-controlled genes. In addition, strains expressing rpoAE255A are defective in disulfide stress resistance and produce RNAP having a reduced affinity for Spx. The E255 residue corresponds to Escherichia coli ?D259, which has been implicated in ?CTD-?70 interaction (?70 R603, corresponding to R362 of B. subtilis ?A). However, the combined rpoAE255A and sigAR362A mutations have an additive negative effect on Spx-dependent expression, suggesting the residues' differing roles in Spx-activated transcription. Our findings suggest that, while ?CTD is essential for Spx-activated transcription, Spx is the primary DNA-binding determinant of the Spx-?CTD complex.IMPORTANCE Though extensively studied in Escherichia coli, the role of ?CTD in activator-stimulated transcription is largely uncharacterized in Bacillus subtilis Here, we conduct phenotypic analyses of putatively lethal ?CTD alanine codon substitution mutants to determine whether these residues function in specific DNA binding at the Spx-?CTD-DNA interface. Our findings suggest that multisubunit RNAP contact to Spx is optimal for activation while Spx fulfills the most stringent requirement of upstream promoter binding. Furthermore, several ?CTD residues targeted for mutagenesis in this study are conserved among many bacterial species and thus insights on their function in other regulatory systems may be suggested herein.

Dataset Information

Crystal structure of the Bacillus subtilis anti-alpha, global transcriptional regulator, Spx, in complex with the alpha C-terminal domain of RNA polymerase.

Publications

Crystal structure of the Bacillus subtilis anti-alpha, global transcriptional regulator, Spx, in complex with the alpha C-terminal domain of RNA polymerase.

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