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Engineering robust control of two-component system phosphotransfer using modular scaffolds.

ABSTRACT: Synthetic biology applies engineering principles to facilitate the predictable design of biological systems. Biological systems composed of modular parts with clearly defined interactions are generally easier to manipulate than complex systems exhibiting a large number of subtle interactions. However, recreating the function of a naturally complex system with simple modular parts can increase fragility. Here, inspired by scaffold-directed signaling in higher organisms, we modularize prokaryotic signal transduction to allow programmable redirection of phosphate flux from a histidine kinase to response regulators based on targeting by eukaryotic protein-protein interaction domains. Although scaffold-directed colocalization alone was sufficient to direct signaling between components, this minimal system suffered from high sensitivity to changing expression levels of each component. To address this fragility, we demonstrate how to engineer autoinhibition into the kinase so that phosphotransfer is possible only upon binding to the scaffold. This system, in which scaffold performs the dual functions of activating this autoinhibited kinase and directing flux to the cotargeted response regulator, was significantly more robust to varying component concentrations. Thus, we demonstrate that design principles inspired by the complex signal-transduction pathways of eukaryotes may be generalized, abstracted, and applied to prokaryotes using well-characterized parts.

SUBMITTER: Whitaker WR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3497815 | biostudies-other | 2012 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Engineering robust control of two-component system phosphotransfer using modular scaffolds.

Whitaker Weston R WR Davis Stephanie A SA Arkin Adam P AP Dueber John E JE

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20121015 44

Synthetic biology applies engineering principles to facilitate the predictable design of biological systems. Biological systems composed of modular parts with clearly defined interactions are generally easier to manipulate than complex systems exhibiting a large number of subtle interactions. However, recreating the function of a naturally complex system with simple modular parts can increase fragility. Here, inspired by scaffold-directed signaling in higher organisms, we modularize prokaryotic ...[more]

PMID: 23071327

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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.

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Engineering robust control of two-component system phosphotransfer using modular scaffolds.

Publications

Engineering robust control of two-component system phosphotransfer using modular scaffolds.

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