Project description:Polyamines (putrescine, spermidine, and spermine) are major organic polycations essential for a wide spectrum of cellular processes. The cells require mechanisms to maintain homeostasis of intracellular polyamines to prevent otherwise severe adverse effects. We performed a detailed transcriptome profile analysis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in response to agmatine and putrescine with an emphasis in polyamine catabolism. Agmatine serves as the precursor compound for putrescine (and hence spermidine and spermine), which was proposed to convert into 4-aminobutyrate (GABA) and succinate before entering the tricarboxylic acid cycle in support of cell growth, as the sole source of carbon and nitrogen. Two acetylpolyamine amidohydrolases, AphA and AphB, were found to be involved in the conversion of agmatine into putrescine. Enzymatic products of AphA were confirmed by mass spectrometry analysis. Interestingly, the alanine-pyruvate cycle was shown to be indispensable for polyamine utilization. The newly identified dadRAX locus encoding the regulator alanine transaminase and racemase coupled with SpuC, the major putrescine-pyruvate transaminase, were key components to maintaining alanine homeostasis. Corresponding mutant strains were severely hampered in polyamine utilization. On the other hand, an alternative gamma-glutamylation pathway for the conversion of putrescine into GABA is present in some organisms. Subsequently, GabD, GabT, and PA5313 were identified for GABA utilization. The growth defect of the PA5313 gabT double mutant in GABA suggested the importance of these two transaminases. The succinic-semialdehyde dehydrogenase activity of GabD and its induction by GABA were also demonstrated in vitro. Polyamine utilization in general was proven to be independent of the PhoPQ two-component system, even though a modest induction of this operon was induced by polyamines. Multiple potent catabolic pathways, as depicted in this study, could serve pivotal roles in the control of intracellular polyamine levels.

Project description:Transcarbamylases reversibly transfer a carbamyl group from carbamylphosphate (CP) to an amine. Although aspartate transcarbamylase and ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) are well characterized, little was known about putrescine transcarbamylase (PTC), the enzyme that generates CP for ATP production in the fermentative catabolism of agmatine. We demonstrate that PTC (from Enterococcus faecalis), in addition to using putrescine, can utilize L-ornithine as a poor substrate. Crystal structures at 2.5 Å and 2.0 Å resolutions of PTC bound to its respective bisubstrate analog inhibitors for putrescine and ornithine use, N-(phosphonoacetyl)-putrescine and δ-N-(phosphonoacetyl)-L-ornithine, shed light on PTC preference for putrescine. Except for a highly prominent C-terminal helix that projects away and embraces an adjacent subunit, PTC closely resembles OTCs, suggesting recent divergence of the two enzymes. Since differences between the respective 230 and SMG loops of PTC and OTC appeared to account for the differential preference of these enzymes for putrescine and ornithine, we engineered the 230-loop of PTC to make it to resemble the SMG loop of OTCs, increasing the activity with ornithine and greatly decreasing the activity with putrescine. We also examined the role of the C-terminal helix that appears a constant and exclusive PTC trait. The enzyme lacking this helix remained active but the PTC trimer stability appeared decreased, since some of the enzyme eluted as monomers from a gel filtration column. In addition, truncated PTC tended to aggregate to hexamers, as shown both chromatographically and by X-ray crystallography. Therefore, the extra C-terminal helix plays a dual role: it stabilizes the PTC trimer and, by shielding helix 1 of an adjacent subunit, it prevents the supratrimeric oligomerizations of obscure significance observed with some OTCs. Guided by the structural data we identify signature traits that permit easy and unambiguous annotation of PTC sequences.

Project description:Polyamines (putrescine, spermidine, and spermine) are major organic polycations essential for a wide spectrum of cellular processes. The cells require mechanisms to maintain homeostasis of intracellular polyamines to prevent otherwise severe adverse effects. We performed a detailed transcriptome profile analysis of P. aeruginosa in response to agmatine and putrescine with an emphasis in polyamine catabolism. Agmatine serves as precursor compound for putrescine (and hence spermidine and spermine), which was proposed to convert into GABA and succinate before entering the TCA cycle in support of cell growth as the sole source of carbon and nitrogen. Two acetylpolyamine amidohydrolases, AphA and AphB, were identified to be involved in the conversion of agmatine into putrescine. Enzymatic products of AphA were confirmed by mass spectrometry analysis. Interestingly, the alanine-pyruvate cycle was shown indispensable for polyamine utilization. The newly identified dadRAX locus, encoding the regulator, alanine transaminase and racemase respectively, coupled with SpuC, the major putrescine-pyruvate transaminase, were key components to maintain alanine homeostasis. Corresponding mutant strains were severely hampered in polyamine utilization. On the other hand, the alternative gamma-glutamylation pathway for the conversion of putrescine into GABA was also discussed. Subsequently, GabD, GabT and PA5313 were identified for GABA utilization. Growth defect of PA5313 gabT double mutant in GABA suggested the importance of these two transaminases. The succinic-semialdehyde dehydrogenase activity of GabD and its induction by GABA was also demonstrated in vitro. Polyamine utilization in general was proven independent of the PhoPQ two-component system even the expression of which was induced by polyamines. Multiple potent catabolic pathways as depicted in this study could serve pivotal roles in control of intracellular polyamine levels. Experiment Overall Design: P. aeruginosa PAO1 was grown aerobically in minimal medium P with 350 rpm shaking at 37C, in the presence of L-glutamate alone or with the addition of putrescine, agmatine or GABA at 20 mM. Cells were harvested when the optical density at 600 nm reached 0.5~0.6 by centrifugation for 5 minutes at 4C. Total RNA samples were isolated by RNeasy purification kit following instructions of the manufacturer (Qiagen). Reverse transcription for cDNA synthesis, fragmentation by DNase I treatment, cDNA probe labeling and hybridization were performed according to the instructions of GeneChip manufacturer (Affymetrix). Data were processed by Microarray Suite 5.0 software normalizing the absolute expression signal values of all chips to a target intensity of 500. GeneSpring software (Silicon Genetics) was used for expression pattern analysis and comparison. Only genes showing consistent expression profiles in duplicates were selected for further analysis.

Project description:Polyamines (putrescine, spermidine, and spermine) are major organic polycations essential for a wide spectrum of cellular processes. The cells require mechanisms to maintain homeostasis of intracellular polyamines to prevent otherwise severe adverse effects. We performed a detailed transcriptome profile analysis of P. aeruginosa in response to agmatine and putrescine with an emphasis in polyamine catabolism. Agmatine serves as precursor compound for putrescine (and hence spermidine and spermine), which was proposed to convert into GABA and succinate before entering the TCA cycle in support of cell growth as the sole source of carbon and nitrogen. Two acetylpolyamine amidohydrolases, AphA and AphB, were identified to be involved in the conversion of agmatine into putrescine. Enzymatic products of AphA were confirmed by mass spectrometry analysis. Interestingly, the alanine-pyruvate cycle was shown indispensable for polyamine utilization. The newly identified dadRAX locus, encoding the regulator, alanine transaminase and racemase respectively, coupled with SpuC, the major putrescine-pyruvate transaminase, were key components to maintain alanine homeostasis. Corresponding mutant strains were severely hampered in polyamine utilization. On the other hand, the alternative gamma-glutamylation pathway for the conversion of putrescine into GABA was also discussed. Subsequently, GabD, GabT and PA5313 were identified for GABA utilization. Growth defect of PA5313 gabT double mutant in GABA suggested the importance of these two transaminases. The succinic-semialdehyde dehydrogenase activity of GabD and its induction by GABA was also demonstrated in vitro. Polyamine utilization in general was proven independent of the PhoPQ two-component system even the expression of which was induced by polyamines. Multiple potent catabolic pathways as depicted in this study could serve pivotal roles in control of intracellular polyamine levels. Keywords: Metabolism, polyamines, agmatine, putrescine, glutamate, phoPQ.

Project description:Maltose and maltodextrins are formed during the degradation of starch or glycogen. Maltodextrins are composed of a mixture of maltooligosaccharides formed by α-1,4- but also some α-1,6-linked glucosyl residues. The α-1,6-linked glucosyl residues are derived from branching points in the polysaccharides. In Enterococcus faecalis, maltotriose is mainly transported and phosphorylated by a phosphoenolpyruvate:carbohydrate phosphotransferase system. The formed maltotriose-6″-phosphate is intracellularly dephosphorylated by a specific phosphatase, MapP. In contrast, maltotetraose and longer maltooligosaccharides up to maltoheptaose are taken up without phosphorylation via the ATP binding cassette transporter MdxEFG-MsmX. We show that the maltose-producing maltodextrin hydrolase MmdH (GenBank accession no. EFT41964) in strain JH2-2 catalyzes the first catabolic step of α-1,4-linked maltooligosaccharides. The purified enzyme converts even-numbered α-1,4-linked maltooligosaccharides (maltotetraose, etc.) into maltose and odd-numbered (maltotriose, etc.) into maltose and glucose. Inactivation of mmdH therefore prevents the growth of E. faecalis on maltooligosaccharides ranging from maltotriose to maltoheptaose. Surprisingly, MmdH also functions as a maltogenic α-1,6-glucosidase, because it converts the maltotriose isomer isopanose into maltose and glucose. In addition, E. faecalis contains a glucose-producing α-1,6-specific maltodextrin hydrolase (GenBank accession no. EFT41963, renamed GmdH). This enzyme converts panose, another maltotriose isomer, into glucose and maltose. A gmdH mutant had therefore lost the capacity to grow on panose. The genes mmdH and gmdH are organized in an operon together with GenBank accession no. EFT41962 (renamed mmgT). Purified MmgT transfers glucosyl residues from one α-1,4-linked maltooligosaccharide molecule to another. For example, it catalyzes the disproportionation of maltotriose by transferring a glucosyl residue to another maltotriose molecule, thereby forming maltotetraose and maltose together with a small amount of maltopentaose.IMPORTANCE The utilization of maltodextrins by Enterococcus faecalis has been shown to increase the virulence of this nosocomial pathogen. However, little is known about how this organism catabolizes maltodextrins. We identified two enzymes involved in the metabolism of various α-1,4- and α-1,6-linked maltooligosaccharides. We found that one of them functions as a maltose-producing α-glucosidase with relaxed linkage specificity (α-1,4 and α-1,6) and exo- and endoglucosidase activities. A third enzyme, which resembles amylomaltase, exclusively transfers glucosyl residues from one maltooligosaccharide molecule to another. Similar enzymes are present in numerous other Firmicutes, such as streptococci and lactobacilli, suggesting that these organisms follow the same maltose degradation pathway as E. faecalis.

Dataset Information

The gene cluster for agmatine catabolism of Enterococcus faecalis: study of recombinant putrescine transcarbamylase and agmatine deiminase and a snapshot of agmatine deiminase catalyzing its reaction.

Publications

The gene cluster for agmatine catabolism of Enterococcus faecalis: study of recombinant putrescine transcarbamylase and agmatine deiminase and a snapshot of agmatine deiminase catalyzing its reaction.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets