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Structure of the response regulator ChrA in the haem-sensing two-component system of Corynebacterium diphtheriae.

ABSTRACT: ChrA is a response regulator (RR) in the two-component system involved in regulating the degradation and transport of haem (Fe-porphyrin) in the pathogen Corynebacterium diphtheriae. Here, the crystal structure of full-length ChrA is described at a resolution of 1.8?Å. ChrA consists of an N-terminal regulatory domain, a long linker region and a C-terminal DNA-binding domain. A structural comparison of ChrA with other RRs revealed substantial differences in the relative orientation of the two domains and the conformation of the linker region. The structural flexibility of the linker could be an important feature in rearrangement of the domain orientation to create a dimerization interface to bind DNA during haem-sensing signal transduction.

SUBMITTER: Doi A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4528925 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Structure of the response regulator ChrA in the haem-sensing two-component system of Corynebacterium diphtheriae.

Doi Akihiro A Nakamura Hiro H Shiro Yoshitsugu Y Sugimoto Hiroshi H

Acta crystallographica. Section F, Structural biology communications 20150729 Pt 8

ChrA is a response regulator (RR) in the two-component system involved in regulating the degradation and transport of haem (Fe-porphyrin) in the pathogen Corynebacterium diphtheriae. Here, the crystal structure of full-length ChrA is described at a resolution of 1.8 Å. ChrA consists of an N-terminal regulatory domain, a long linker region and a C-terminal DNA-binding domain. A structural comparison of ChrA with other RRs revealed substantial differences in the relative orientation of the two dom ...[more]

PMID: 26249683

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Project description:Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the causative agent of diphtheria, utilizes various host compounds to acquire iron. The C. diphtheriae hmuO gene encodes a heme oxygenase that is involved in the utilization of heme and hemoglobin as iron sources. Transcription of the hmuO gene in C. diphtheriae is controlled under a dual regulatory mechanism in which the diphtheria toxin repressor protein (DtxR) and iron repress expression while either heme or hemoglobin is needed to activate transcription. In this study, two clones isolated from a C. diphtheriae chromosomal library were shown to activate transcription from the hmuO promoter in Escherichia coli. Sequence analysis revealed that these activator clones each carried distinct genes whose products had significant homology to response regulators of two-component signal transduction systems. Located upstream from each of these response regulator homologs are partial open reading frames that are predicted to encode the C-terminal portions of sensor kinases. The full-length sensor kinase gene for each of these systems was cloned from the C. diphtheriae chromosome, and constructs each carrying one complete sensor kinase gene and its cognate response regulator were constructed. One of these constructs, pTSB20, which carried the response regulator (chrA) and its cognate sensor kinase (chrS), was shown to strongly activate transcription from the hmuO promoter in a heme-dependent manner in E. coli. A mutation in chrA (chrAD50N), which changed a conserved aspartic acid residue at position 50, the presumed site of phosphorylation by ChrS, to an asparagine, abolished heme-dependent activation. These findings suggest that the sensor kinase ChrS is involved in the detection of heme and the transduction of this signal, via a phosphotransfer mechanism, to the response regulator ChrA, which then activates transcription of the hmuO promoter. This is the first report of a bacterial two-component signal transduction system that controls gene expression through a heme-responsive mechanism.

Project description:Corynebacterium diphtheriae is the etiological agent of diphtheria, a disease caused by the presence of the diphtheria toxin. However, an increasing number of records report non-toxigenic C. diphtheriae infections. Here, a C. diphtheriae strain was recovered from a patient with a past history of bronchiectasis who developed a severe tracheo-bronchitis with multiple whitish lesions of the distal trachea and the mainstem bronchi. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS), performed in parallel with PCR targeting the toxin gene and the Elek test, provided clinically relevant results in a short turnaround time, showing that the isolate was non-toxigenic. A comparative genomic analysis of the new strain (CHUV2995) with 56 other publicly available genomes of C. diphtheriae revealed that the strains CHUV2995, CCUG 5865 and CMCNS703 share a lower average nucleotide identity (ANI) (95.24 to 95.39%) with the C. diphtheriae NCTC 11397T reference genome than all other C. diphtheriae genomes (>98.15%). Core genome phylogeny confirmed the presence of two monophyletic clades. Based on these findings, we propose here two new C. diphtheriae subspecies to replace the lineage denomination used in previous multilocus sequence typing studies: C. diphtheriae subsp. lausannense subsp. nov. (instead of lineage-2), regrouping strains CHUV2995, CCUG 5865, and CMCNS703, and C. diphtheriae subsp. diphtheriae subsp. nov, regrouping all other C. diphtheriae in the dataset (instead of lineage-1). Interestingly, members of subspecies lausannense displayed a larger genome size than subspecies diphtheriae and were enriched in COG categories related to transport and metabolism of lipids (I) and inorganic ion (P). Conversely, they lacked all genes involved in the synthesis of pili (SpaA-type, SpaD-type and SpaH-type), molybdenum cofactor and of the nitrate reductase. Finally, the CHUV2995 genome is particularly enriched in mobility genes and harbors several prophages. The genome encodes a type II-C CRISPR-Cas locus with 2 spacers that lacks csn2 or cas4, which could hamper the acquisition of new spacers and render strain CHUV2995 more susceptible to bacteriophage infections and gene acquisition through various mechanisms of horizontal gene transfer.

Project description:Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the causative agent of the severe respiratory disease diphtheria, utilizes hemin and hemoglobin as iron sources for growth in iron-depleted environments. Because of the toxicity of high levels of hemin and iron, these compounds are often tightly regulated in bacterial systems. In this report, we identify and characterize the C. diphtheriae hrtAB genes, which encode a putative ABC type transporter involved in conferring resistance to the toxic effects of hemin. Deletion of the hrtAB genes in C. diphtheriae produced increased sensitivity to hemin, which was complemented by a plasmid harboring the cloned hrtAB locus. The HrtAB system was not involved in the uptake and use of hemin as an iron source. The hrtAB genes are located on the C. diphtheriae genome upstream from the chrSA operon, which encodes a previously characterized two-component signal transduction system that regulates gene expression in a heme-dependent manner. The hrtB promoter is activated by the ChrAS system in the presence of hemin or hemoglobin, and mutations in the chrSA genes abolish heme-activated expression from the hrtB promoter. It was also observed that transcription from the hrtB promoter is reduced in a dtxR deletion mutant, suggesting that DtxR is required for optimal expression of hrtAB. Previous studies proposed that the ChrS sensor kinase may be responsive to an environmental signal, such as hemin. We show that specific point mutations in the ChrS N-terminal transmembrane domain result in a reduced ability to activate the hrtB promoter in the presence of a heme source, suggesting that this putative sensor region is essential for the detection of a signal produced in response to hemin exposure. This study shows that the HrtAB system is required for protection from hemin toxicity and that expression of the hrtAB genes is regulated by the ChrAS two-component system. This study demonstrates a direct correlation between the detection of heme or a heme-associated signal by the N-terminal sensor domain of ChrS and the transcriptional activation of the hrtAB genes.

Project description:The response regulator HrrA belonging to the HrrSA two-component system (previously named CgtSR11) is known to be repressed by the global iron-dependent regulator DtxR in Corynebacterium glutamicum. Sequence analysis indicated an involvement of the HrrSA system in heme-dependent gene expression. Growth experiments revealed that the non-pathogenic soil bacterium C. glutamicum is able to use hemin or hemoglobin as sole iron source. In DNA microarray analyses a putative operon encoding the hemin-binding protein HtaA and the putative hemin ABC transporter HmuTUV showed a strong upregulation in heme-grown cells. Deletion of the hmu operon clearly affects heme utilization, but does not completely abolish growth on heme or hemoglobin. As a central part of this study, we investigated the regulon of the response regulator HrrA via comparative transcriptome analysis of a hrrA deletion mutant and C. glutamicum wild type in combination with DNA-protein interaction studies with purified HrrA protein. Our data provide evidence for a heme-dependent transcriptional activation of heme oxygenase (hmuO), an enzyme involved in the utilization of heme as iron source. Besides hmuO, HrrA was shown to activate the expression of heme-containing components of the respiratory chain, namely ctaD and the ctaE-qcrCAB operon encoding subunits I and III of cytochrome aa3 oxidase and three subunits of the cytochrome bc1 complex. Furthermore, HrrA represses almost all genes involved in heme biosynthesis, including glutamyl-tRNA reductase (hemA), uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase (hemE), and ferrochelatase (hemH). Thus, our data clearly emphasize a central role of the HrrSA system in the control of heme homeostasis in C. glutamicum. Three biological replicates of each experiment were performed. Experiment 1: Transcriptome comparison of wild type grown und FeSO4 or heme as iron source; Exp. 2: WT vs. hrrA deletion mutant grown on FeSO4; Exp. 3: WT vs. hrrA mutant grown on heme. For analysis via DNA microarraysose RNA was isolated from exponentially growing cells cultivated in CgXII medium containing glucose as carbon source and either 2.5 uM FeSO4 or 2.5 uM heme as iron source.

Dataset Information

Structure of the response regulator ChrA in the haem-sensing two-component system of Corynebacterium diphtheriae.

Publications

Structure of the response regulator ChrA in the haem-sensing two-component system of Corynebacterium diphtheriae.

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