Project description:Proteomic tools identify constituents of complex mixtures, often delivering long lists of identified proteins. The high-throughput methods excel at matching tandem mass spectrometry data to spectra predicted from sequence databases. Unassigned mass spectra are ignored, but could, in principle, provide valuable information on unanticipated modifications and improve protein annotations while consuming limited quantities of material. Strategies to "mine" information from these discards are presented, along with discussion of features that, when present, provide strong support for modifications. In this study we mined LC-MS/MS datasets of proteolytically-digested concanavalin A pull down fractions from Methanosarcina mazei Gö1 cell lysates. Analyses identified 154 proteins. Many of the observed proteins displayed post-translationally modified forms, including O-formylated and methyl-esterified segments that appear biologically relevant (i.e., not artifacts of sample handling). Interesting cleavages and modifications (e.g., S-cyanylation and trimethylation) were observed near catalytic sites of methanogenesis enzymes. Of 31 Methanosarcina protein N-termini recovered by concanavalin A binding or from a previous study, only M. mazei S-layer protein MM1976 and its M. acetivorans C2A orthologue, MA0829, underwent signal peptide excision. Experimental results contrast with predictions from algorithms SignalP 3.0 and Exprot, which were found to over-predict the presence of signal peptides. Proteins MM0002, MM0716, MM1364, and MM1976 were found to be glycosylated, and employing chromatography tailored specifically for glycopeptides will likely reveal more. This study supplements limited, existing experimental datasets of mature archaeal N-termini, including presence or absence of signal peptides, translation initiation sites, and other processing. Methanosarcina surface and membrane proteins are richly modified.
Project description:The mesophilic methanogenic archaeon Methanosarcina mazei strain Gö1 is able to utilize molecular nitrogen (N2) as its sole nitrogen source. We have identified and characterized a single nitrogen fixation (nif) gene cluster in M. mazei Gö1 with an approximate length of 9 kbp. Sequence analysis revealed seven genes with sequence similarities to nifH, nifI1, nifI2, nifD, nifK, nifE and nifN, similar to other diazotrophic methanogens and certain bacteria such as Clostridium acetobutylicum, with the two glnB-like genes (nifI1 and nifI2) located between nifH and nifD. Phylogenetic analysis of deduced amino acid sequences for the nitrogenase structural genes of M. mazei Gö1 showed that they are most closely related to Methanosarcina barkeri nif2 genes, and also closely resemble those for the corresponding nif products of the gram-positive bacterium C. acetobutylicum. Northern blot analysis and reverse transcription PCR analysis demonstrated that the M. mazei nif genes constitute an operon transcribed only under nitrogen starvation as a single 8 kb transcript. Sequence analysis revealed a palindromic sequence at the transcriptional start site in front of the M. mazei nifH gene, which may have a function in transcriptional regulation of the nif operon.
Project description:Casposons are transposable elements containing the CRISPR associated gene Cas1solo. Identified in many archaeal genomes, casposons are discussed as the origin of CRISPR-Cas systems due to their proposed Cas1solo-dependent translocation. However, apart from bioinformatic approaches and the demonstration of Cas1solo integrase and endonuclease activity in vitro, casposon transposition has not yet been shown in vivo. Here, we report on active casposon translocations in Methanosarcina mazei Gö1 using two independent experimental approaches. First, mini-casposons, consisting of a R6Kγ origin and two antibiotic resistance cassettes, flanked by target site duplications (TSDs) and terminal inverted repeats (TIRs), were generated, and shown to actively translocate from a suicide plasmid and integrate into the chromosomal MetMaz-C1 TSD IS1a. Second, casposon excision activity was confirmed in a long-term evolution experiment using a Cas1solo overexpression strain in comparison to an empty vector control under four different treatments (native, high temperature, high salt, mitomycin C) to study stress-induced translocation. Analysis of genomic DNA using a nested qPCR approach provided clear evidence of casposon activity in single cells and revealed significantly different casposon excision frequencies between treatments and strains. Our results, providing the first experimental evidence for in vivo casposon activity are summarized in a modified hypothetical translocation model.
Project description:Trans-encoded sRNA154 is exclusively expressed under nitrogen (N)-deficiency in Methanosarcina mazei strain Gö1. The sRNA154 deletion strain showed a significant decrease in growth under N-limitation, pointing toward a regulatory role of sRNA154 in N-metabolism. Aiming to elucidate its regulatory function we characterized sRNA154 by means of biochemical and genetic approaches. 24 homologs of sRNA154 were identified in recently reported draft genomes of Methanosarcina strains, demonstrating high conservation in sequence and predicted secondary structure with two highly conserved single stranded loops. Transcriptome studies of sRNA154 deletion mutants by an RNA-seq approach uncovered nifH- and nrpA-mRNA, encoding the α-subunit of nitrogenase and the transcriptional activator of the nitrogen fixation (nif)-operon, as potential targets besides other components of the N-metabolism. Furthermore, results obtained from stability, complementation and western blot analysis, as well as in silico target predictions combined with electrophoretic mobility shift-assays, argue for a stabilizing effect of sRNA154 on the polycistronic nif-mRNA and nrpA-mRNA by binding with both loops. Further identified N-related targets were studied, which demonstrates that translation initiation of glnA2-mRNA, encoding glutamine synthetase2, appears to be affected by sRNA154 masking the ribosome binding site, whereas glnA1-mRNA appears to be stabilized by sRNA154. Overall, we propose that sRNA154 has a crucial regulatory role in N-metabolism in M. mazei by stabilizing the polycistronic mRNA encoding nitrogenase and glnA1-mRNA, as well as allowing a feed forward regulation of nif-gene expression by stabilizing nrpA-mRNA. Consequently, sRNA154 represents the first archaeal sRNA, for which a positive posttranscriptional regulation is demonstrated as well as inhibition of translation initiation.
Project description:Methanosarcina mazei and related mesophilic archaea are the only organisms fermenting acetate, methylamines, and methanol to methane and carbon dioxide, contributing significantly to greenhouse gas production. The biochemistry of these metabolic processes is well studied, and genome sequences are available, yet little is known about the overall transcriptional organization and the noncoding regions representing 25% of the 4.01-Mb genome of M. mazei. We present a genome-wide analysis of transcription start sites (TSS) in M. mazei grown under different nitrogen availabilities. Pyrosequencing-based differential analysis of primary vs. processed 5' ends of transcripts discovered 876 TSS across the M. mazei genome. Unlike in other archaea, in which leaderless mRNAs are prevalent, the majority of the detected mRNAs in M. mazei carry long untranslated 5' regions. Our experimental data predict a total of 208 small RNA (sRNA) candidates, mostly from intergenic regions but also antisense to 5' and 3' regions of mRNAs. In addition, 40 new small mRNAs with ORFs of < or = 30 aa were identified, some of which might have dual functions as mRNA and regulatory sRNA. We confirmed differential expression of several sRNA genes in response to nitrogen availability. Inspection of their promoter regions revealed a unique conserved sequence motif associated with nitrogen-responsive regulation, which might serve as a regulator binding site upstream of the common IIB recognition element. Strikingly, several sRNAs antisense to mRNAs encoding transposases indicate nitrogen-dependent transposition events. This global TSS map in archaea will facilitate a better understanding of transcriptional and posttranscriptional control in the third domain of life.
Project description:The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) system represents a highly adaptive and heritable defense system against foreign nucleic acids in bacteria and archaea. We analyzed the two CRISPR-Cas systems in Methanosarcina mazei strain Gö1. Although belonging to different subtypes (I-B and III-B), the leaders and repeats of both loci are nearly identical. Also, despite many point mutations in each array, a common hairpin motif was identified in the repeats by a bioinformatics analysis and in vitro structural probing. The expression and maturation of CRISPR-derived RNAs (crRNAs) were studied in vitro and in vivo. Both respective potential Cas6b-type endonucleases were purified and their activity tested in vitro. Each protein showed significant activity and could cleave both repeats at the same processing site. Cas6b of subtype III-B, however, was significantly more efficient in its cleavage activity compared with Cas6b of subtype I-B. Northern blot and differential RNAseq analyses were performed to investigate in vivo transcription and maturation of crRNAs, revealing generally very low expression of both systems, whereas significant induction at high NaCl concentrations was observed. crRNAs derived proximal to the leader were generally more abundant than distal ones and in vivo processing sites were clarified for both loci, confirming the previously well-established 8 nt 5' repeat tags. The 3'-ends were more diverse, but generally ended in a prefix of the following repeat sequence (3'-tag). The analysis further revealed a 5'-hydroxy and 3'-phosphate termini architecture of small crRNAs specific for cleavage products of Cas6 endonucleases from type I-E and I-F and type III-B.