Novel actin filaments from Bacillus thuringiensis form nanotubules for plasmid DNA segregation.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Jiang S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4780641 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:It was the general belief that DNA partitioning in prokaryotes is independent of a cytoskeletal structure, which in eukaryotic cells is indispensable for DNA segregation. Recently, however, immunofluorescence microscopy revealed highly dynamic, filamentous structures along the longitudinal axis of Escherichia coli formed by ParM, a plasmid-encoded protein required for accurate segregation of low-copy-number plasmid R1. We show here that ParM polymerizes into double helical protofilaments with a longitudinal repeat similar to filamentous actin (F-actin) and MreB filaments that maintain the cell shape of non-spherical bacteria. The crystal structure of ParM with and without ADP demonstrates that it is a member of the actin family of proteins and shows a domain movement of 25 degrees upon nucleotide binding. Furthermore, the crystal structure of ParM reveals major differences in the protofilament interface compared with F-actin, despite the similar arrangement of the subunits within the filaments. Thus, there is now evidence for cytoskeletal structures, formed by actin-like filaments that are involved in plasmid partitioning in E.coli.
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Project description:Bacterial cytoskeletal proteins participate in a variety of processes, including cell division and DNA segregation. Polymerization of one plasmid-encoded, actin-like protein, ParM, segregates DNA by pushing two plasmids in opposite directions and forms the current paradigm for understanding active plasmid segregation. An essential feature of ParM assembly is its dynamically instability, the stochastic switching between growth and disassembly. It is unclear whether dynamic instability is an essential feature of all actin-like protein-based segregation mechanisms or whether bacterial filaments can segregate plasmids by different mechanisms. We expressed and purified AlfA, a plasmid-segregating actin-like protein from Bacillus subtilis, and found that it forms filaments with a unique structure and biochemistry; AlfA nucleates rapidly, polymerizes in the presence of ATP or GTP, and forms highly twisted, ribbon-like, helical filaments with a left-handed pitch and protomer nucleotide binding pockets rotated away from the filament axis. Intriguingly, AlfA filaments spontaneously associate to form uniformly sized, mixed-polarity bundles. Most surprisingly, our biochemical characterization revealed that AlfA does not display dynamic instability and is relatively stable in the presence of diphosphate nucleotides. These results (i) show that there is remarkable structural diversity among bacterial actin filaments and (ii) indicate that AlfA filaments partition DNA by a novel mechanism.
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Project description:Practically all Bacillus thuringiensis strains contain a set of self-replicating, extrachromosomal DNA molecules or plasmids, which vary in number and size in the different strains. The plasmid patterns obtained from gel electrophoresis have previously been used as a tool to characterize strains, but comparison of the plasmid patterns has been limited in the number and diversity of strains analyzed. In this report, we were able to compare the plasmid patterns of 83 type strains (out of 84) and 47 additional strains from six serotypes. The information obtained from this comparison showed the importance of this tool as a strain characterization procedure and indicates the complexity and uniqueness of this feature. For example, with one exception, all type strains showed a unique plasmid pattern. All were unique in such a way that none showed even a single comigrating plasmid in the agarose gels, and therefore, cluster analysis was impossible, indicating that plasmid patterns are qualitative rather than quantitative features. Furthermore, comparison between strains belonging to the same serotype showed a great difference in variability. Some serotypes (e.g., israelensis) showed the same basic pattern among all its strains, while other serotypes (e.g., morrisoni) showed a great diversity of patterns. These results indicate that plasmid patterns are valuable tools to discriminate strains below the serotype level.
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Project description:In this study, we report a rapid cloning strategy for large native plasmids via a contig linkage map by BAC libraries. Using this method, we cloned a large plasmid pBMB165 from Bacillus thuringiensis serovar tenebrionis strain YBT-1765. Complete sequencing showed that pBMB165 is 77,627 bp long with a GC-content of 35.36%, and contains 103 open reading frames (ORFs). Sequence analysis and comparison reveals that pBMB165 represents a novel plasmid organization: it mainly consists of a pXO2-like replicon and mobile genetic elements (an inducible prophage BMBTP3 and a set of transposable elements). This is the first description of this plasmid organization pattern, which may result from recombination events among the plasmid replicon, prophage and transposable elements. This plasmid organization reveals that the prophage BMBTP3 may use the plasmid replicon to maintain its genetic stability. Our results provide a new approach to understanding co-evolution between bacterial plasmids and bacteriophage.
| S-EPMC3847046 | biostudies-literature
Project description:To ensure their stable inheritance by daughter cells during cell division, bacterial low-copy-number plasmids make simple DNA segregating machines that use an elongating protein filament between sister plasmids. In the ParMRC system of the Escherichia coli R1 plasmid, ParM, an actinlike protein, forms the spindle between ParRC complexes on sister plasmids. By using a combination of structural work and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, we show that ParRC bound and could accelerate growth at only one end of polar ParM filaments, mechanistically resembling eukaryotic formins. The architecture of ParM filaments enabled two ParRC-bound filaments to associate in an antiparallel orientation, forming a bipolar spindle. The spindle elongated as a bundle of at least two antiparallel filaments, thereby pushing two plasmid clusters toward the poles.
| S-EPMC3694215 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The centrosome, a non-membranous organelle, constrains various soluble molecules locally to execute its functions. As the centrosome is surrounded by various dense components, we hypothesized that it may be bordered by a putative diffusion barrier. After quantitatively measuring the trapping kinetics of soluble proteins of varying size at centrosomes by a chemically inducible diffusion trapping assay, we find that centrosomes are highly accessible to soluble molecules with a Stokes radius of less than 5.8 nm, whereas larger molecules rarely reach centrosomes, indicating the existence of a size-dependent diffusion barrier at centrosomes. The permeability of this barrier is tightly regulated by branched actin filaments outside of centrosomes and it decreases during anaphase when branched actin temporally increases. The actin-based diffusion barrier gates microtubule nucleation by interfering with γ-tubulin ring complex recruitment. We propose that actin filaments spatiotemporally constrain protein complexes at centrosomes in a size-dependent manner.
| S-EPMC9827556 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Type II plasmid partition systems utilize ParM NTPases in coordination with a centromere-binding protein called ParR to mediate accurate DNA segregation, a process critical for plasmid retention. The Staphylococcus aureus pSK41 plasmid is a medically important plasmid that confers resistance to multiple antibiotics, disinfectants, and antiseptics. In the first step of partition, the pSK41 ParR binds its DNA centromere to form a superhelical partition complex that recruits ParM, which then mediates plasmid separation. pSK41 ParM is homologous to R1 ParM, a known actin homologue, suggesting that it may also form filaments to drive partition. To gain insight into the partition function of ParM, we examined its ability to form filaments and determined the crystal structure of apoParM to 1.95 A. The structure shows that pSK41 ParM belongs to the actin/Hsp70 superfamily. Unexpectedly, however, pSK41 ParM shows the strongest structural homology to the archaeal actin-like protein Thermoplasma acidophilum Ta0583, rather than its functional homologue, R1 ParM. Consistent with this divergence, we find that regions shown to be involved in R1 ParM filament formation are not important in formation of pSK41 ParM polymers. These data are also consonant with our finding that pSK41 ParM forms 1-start 10/4 helices very different from the 37/17 symmetry of R1 ParM. The polymerization kinetics of pSK41 ParM also differed from that of R1 ParM. These results indicate that type II NTPases utilize different polymeric structures to drive plasmid segregation.
| S-EPMC2843175 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND: Bacillus cereus, Bacillus anthracis and Bacillus thuringiensis belong to the genetically close-knit Bacillus cereus sensu lato group, a family of rod-shaped Gram-positive bacteria. pAW63 is the first conjugative plasmid from the B. cereus group to be completely sequenced. RESULTS: The 71,777 bp nucleotide sequence of pAW63 reveals a modular structure, including a 42 kb tra region encoding homologs of the Type IV secretion systems components VirB11, VirB4 and VirD4, as well as homologs of Gram-positive conjugation genes from Enterococcus, Lactococcus, Listeria, Streptococcus and Staphylococcus species. It also firmly establishes the existence of a common backbone between pAW63, pXO2 from Bacillus anthracis and pBT9727 from the pathogenic Bacillus thuringiensis serovar konkukian strain 97-27. The alignment of these three plasmids highlights the presence of well conserved segments, in contrast to distinct regions of high sequence plasticity. The study of their specific differences has provided a three-point reference framework that can be exploited to formulate solid hypotheses concerning the functionalities and the molecular evolution of these three closely related plasmids. This has provided insight into the chronology of their divergence, and led to the discovery of two Type II introns on pAW63, matching copies of the mobile element IS231L in different loci of pXO2 and pBT9727, and the identification on pXO2 of a 37 kb pathogenicity island (PAI) containing the anthrax capsule genes. CONCLUSION: The complete sequence determination of pAW63 has led to a functional map of the plasmid yielding insights into its conjugative apparatus, which includes T4SS-like components, as well as its resemblance to other large plasmids of Gram-positive bacteria. Of particular interest is the extensive homology shared between pAW63 and pXO2, the second virulence plasmid of B. anthracis, as well as pBT9727 from the pathogenic strain B. thuringiensis serovar konkukian strain 97-27.
| S-EPMC1196294 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We here identify a protein (AlfA; actin like filament) that defines a new family of actins that are only distantly related to MreB and ParM. AlfA is required for segregation of Bacillus subtilis plasmid pBET131 (a mini pLS32-derivative) during growth and sporulation. A 3-kb DNA fragment encoding alfA and a downstream gene (alfB) is necessary and sufficient for plasmid stability. AlfA-GFP assembles dynamic cytoskeletal filaments that rapidly turn over (t(1/2)< approximately 45 s) in fluorescence recovery after photobleaching experiments. A point mutation (alfA D168A) that completely inhibits AlfA subunit exchange in vivo is strongly defective for plasmid segregation, demonstrating that dynamic polymerization of AlfA is necessary for function. During sporulation, plasmid segregation occurs before septation and independently of the DNA translocase SpoIIIE and the chromosomal Par proteins Soj and Spo0J. The absence of the RacA chromosome anchoring protein reduces the efficiency of plasmid segregation (by about two-fold), suggesting that it might contribute to anchoring the plasmid at the pole during sporulation. Our results suggest that the dynamic polymerization of AlfA mediates plasmid separation during both growth and sporulation.
| S-EPMC1698890 | biostudies-other
Project description:Active segregation of Escherichia coli low-copy-number plasmid R1 involves formation of a bipolar spindle made of left-handed double-helical actin-like ParM filaments. ParR links the filaments with centromeric parC plasmid DNA, while facilitating the addition of subunits to ParM filaments. Growing ParMRC spindles push sister plasmids to the cell poles. Here, using modern electron cryomicroscopy methods, we investigate the structures and arrangements of ParM filaments in vitro and in cells, revealing at near-atomic resolution how subunits and filaments come together to produce the simplest known mitotic machinery. To understand the mechanism of dynamic instability, we determine structures of ParM filaments in different nucleotide states. The structure of filaments bound to the ATP analogue AMPPNP is determined at 4.3 Å resolution and refined. The ParM filament structure shows strong longitudinal interfaces and weaker lateral interactions. Also using electron cryomicroscopy, we reconstruct ParM doublets forming antiparallel spindles. Finally, with whole-cell electron cryotomography, we show that doublets are abundant in bacterial cells containing low-copy-number plasmids with the ParMRC locus, leading to an asynchronous model of R1 plasmid segregation.
| S-EPMC4493928 | biostudies-literature