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A re-evaluation of the role of histidine-426 within Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A.

ABSTRACT: CRM66 (cross-reactive 66 kDa protein) is an inactive mutant form of Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A that has been isolated from a mutant strain of P. aeruginosa derived from nitrosoguanidine-based mutagenesis. The mutation within this enzyme toxin was previously identified as H426Y and it was shown to possess significantly reduced enzymic activity. Furthermore, it was previously suggested that His-426 may directly participate in the catalytic mechanism of the exotoxin A enzyme and that it may also play an important role in the binding of the protein substrate of exotoxin A, a critical protein factor in eukaryotic protein translation known as elongation factor-2. In order to more thoroughly characterize the role of His-426 in the enzyme mechanism of exotoxin A, amino acid substitutions were made within helix 1 of the enzyme domain in the vicinity of the His-426 residue. Analysis of the site-directed mutagenesis results involving kinetic and protein structural integrity measurements revealed that His-426 H-bonds to Tyr-502 and that replacement of His-426 with polar substitutions leads to structural alterations of the enzyme's folded conformation. Furthermore, it was shown that His-426 is not important for the binding of either of the two substrates of exotoxin A, NAD(+) or elongation factor-2. In summary, these data show that His-426 is not an active-site residue and that it is not important for substrate binding or orientation, but that it plays an important structural role in helping to maintain the folded conformation of the enzyme toxin. Therefore, the role of His-426 would seem to be to tether helix 1 to the main body of the enzyme, and mutations resulting in the disruption of this region of the enzyme result in a significantly impaired enzyme.

SUBMITTER: Roberts TM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1222941 | biostudies-other | 2002 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:The Pseudomonas aeruginosa toxin ExoS, secreted by the type III secretion system (T3SS), supports intracellular persistence via its ADP-ribosyltransferase (ADPr) activity. For epithelial cells, this involves inhibiting vacuole acidification, promoting vacuolar escape, countering autophagy, and niche construction in the cytoplasm and within plasma membrane blebs. Paradoxically, ExoS and other P. aeruginosa T3SS effectors can also have antiphagocytic and cytotoxic activities. Here, we sought to reconcile these apparently contradictory activities of ExoS by studying the relationships between intracellular persistence and host epithelial cell death. Methods involved quantitative imaging and the use of antibiotics that vary in host cell membrane permeability to selectively kill intracellular and extracellular populations after invasion. Results showed that intracellular P. aeruginosa mutants lacking T3SS effector toxins could kill (permeabilize) cells when extracellular bacteria were eliminated. Surprisingly, wild-type strain PAO1 (encoding ExoS, ExoT and ExoY) caused cell death more slowly, the time extended from 5.2 to 9.5 h for corneal epithelial cells and from 10.2 to 13.0 h for HeLa cells. Use of specific mutants/complementation and controls for initial invasion showed that ExoS ADPr activity delayed cell death. Triggering T3SS expression only after bacteria invaded cells using rhamnose-induction in T3SS mutants rescued the ExoS-dependent intracellular phenotype, showing that injected effectors from extracellular bacteria were not required. The ADPr activity of ExoS was further found to support internalization by countering the antiphagocytic activity of both the ExoS and ExoT RhoGAP domains. Together, these results show two additional roles for ExoS ADPr activity in supporting the intracellular lifestyle of P. aeruginosa; suppression of host cell death to preserve a replicative niche and inhibition of T3SS effector antiphagocytic activities to allow invasion. These findings add to the growing body of evidence that ExoS-encoding (invasive) P. aeruginosa strains can be facultative intracellular pathogens, and that intracellularly secreted T3SS effectors contribute to pathogenesis.

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A re-evaluation of the role of histidine-426 within Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A.

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