Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, December 2005, p. 608-634, Vol. 69, No. 4
1092-2172/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/MMBR.69.4.608-634.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Division of Biological Sciences, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0116
SUMMARY INTRODUCTION OVERVIEW OF GENOME ANALYSES RELATIVE DISTRIBUTION OF PTS PERMEASE TYPES DISTRIBUTION OF PTS PERMEASE TYPES IN VARIOUS BACTERIAL KINGDOMS NUMBERS OF PTS PROTEIN-ENCODING GENES VERSUS GENOME SIZE AND PHYSIOLOGY ORGANISMS LACKING PTS HOMOLOGUES BACTERIA WITH CYTOPLASMIC PTS PROTEIN HOMOLOGUES BUT NO RECOGNIZABLE PTS TRANSPORTERS BACTERIA WITH A COMPLETE PTS PHOSPHORYL TRANSFER CHAIN AND JUST ONE OR TWO TYPES OF PTS PERMEASE BACTERIA WITH A COMPLETE PTS PHOSPHORYL TRANSFER CHAIN AND MULTIPLE TYPES OF PTS PERMEASES High-G+C Gram-Positive Bacteria Low-G+C Gram-Positive Bacteria Proteobacteria Spirochetes OCCURRENCE OF DIHYDROXYACETONE PTS ENZYME II COMPLEXES PHYLOGENY OF DHA PROTEINS PTS DOMAIN FUSION PROTEINS PTS PROTEINS WITH EXTRA NON-PTS DOMAINS PTS PROTEIN STRAIN DIFFERENCES IN SINGLE BACTERIAL SPECIES CONCLUSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS REFERENCES
|
|
|---|
|
|
|---|
In 1964, the three recognized activities of the PTS were presumed to correspond merely to three proteins. We now know that dozens of PTS proteins are present in the E. coli cell and that thousands of PTS protein homologues occur in other bacteria. Numerous genes encoding these proteins have been fully sequenced, and their phylogenetic relationships have been described (29, 81; Nguyen et al., unpublished data).
The bacterial PTS catalyzes the concomitant transport and phosphorylation of its sugar substrates (62, 96). It is a complex system that consists of general cytoplasmic energy-coupling proteins, enzyme I (EI) and HPr, which lack sugar specificity, and membranous enzyme II complexes, each specific for one or a few sugars. The enzyme II complexes usually consist of three proteins or protein domains, namely, IIA, IIB, and IIC. However, the enzyme II complexes of one of the PTS families, the mannose family, have one additional membrane-spanning protein or domain, called IID (72). Phosphoryl relay proceeds sequentially from PEP to EI, HPr, IIA, IIB, and finally, the incoming sugar, which is transported across the membrane via the integral membrane IIC porter (Table 1 and Fig. 1A).
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 1. Structural complexity of PTS
|
![]() View larger version (20K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 1. Phosphoryl
transfer chains of the bacterial phosphotransferase system.
(A) Various phosphoryl relay chains of the PTS. (B)
Proposed regulatory phosphoryl transfer chains based on the data in
Table 7. (C)
Putative phosphoryl chains in Bradyrhizobium
japonicum.
|
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 2. Functional
complexity of PTS
|
54-dependent transcription of carbon
and nitrogen metabolic genes
(12,
46,
63,
70,
74). Some evidence
implicates the PTS in the regulation of cell division
(44,
63). Still other
regulatory functions of the PTS and their physiological consequences
are listed in Table
2. In Escherichia coli, paralogues of EI, HPr, and the fructose IIA protein (IIAFru), designated nitrogen enzyme I (EINtr), nitrogen HPr (NPr), and nitrogen IIA protein (IIANtr), respectively, constitute a phosphoryl transfer chain (Fig. 1A) that has been shown to exhibit little enzymatic cross-reactivity with the classical sugar-transporting phosphoryl transfer chain consisting of EI, HPr, and various sugar-specific enzyme II complexes (65). This nitrogen-related phosphoryl transfer chain presumably functions only in regulation (46, 47, 63). EINtr homologues have been shown to cluster phylogenetically together, distantly from all other enzyme I homologues (29).
Phylogenetic data have shown that NPr in E. coli is a distant paralogue of HPr (29, 63). Sequence characteristics that distinguish NPr from HPr as well as EINtr from EI have been described previously (65). EINtr consists of two domains, an N-terminal domain of 127 amino acids homologous to the N-terminal "sensory" domain of the NifA protein of Azotobacter vinelandii (2) and a C-terminal domain of 578 amino acids homologous to all currently sequenced enzyme I proteins. EINtr may serve a sensory function linking carbon and nitrogen metabolism (69). A mutation of the orthologous EINtr-encoding ptsP gene of A. vinelandii resulted in impaired metabolism of poly-ß-hydroxybutyrate as well as diminished respiratory protection of nitrogenase under carbon-limiting conditions (90). In addition to EINtr and NPr, E. coli encodes within its genome three additional EI paralogues and four additional HPr paralogues. The functions of most of these proteins are still unknown.
The biochemical detection of novel PTS proteins in bacteria as diverse as Ancalomicrobium adetum (85), Spirochaeta aurantia(83), Acholeplasma laidlawii (28), Listeria monocytogenes (50), and several antibiotic-producing species of Streptomyces (6, 104) suggests the involvement of PTS proteins in cellular processes distinct from those currently recognized. It is worth noting that other families of transport systems, such as the family of ATP-binding cassette (ABC)-type permeases (27) and the major facilitator superfamily (55), apparently do not participate in metabolic and transcriptional regulation to the extent observed for the PTS.
Recently, a nontransporting enzyme II complex was characterized in E. coli that phosphorylates dihydroxyacetone (DHA) at the expense of PEP, using three soluble DHA-specific proteins in addition to EI and HPr (25). The three components of the DHA enzyme II complex are designated DhaK, DhaL, and DhaM. The DhaM protein of E. coli is a tridomain protein consisting of an N-terminal IIADha domain that is distantly related to IIAMan, a central HPr domain, and a C-terminally truncated EI domain. All three domains have been shown to be phosphorylated, using PEP and the classical enzyme I and HPr proteins as phosphoryl donors. The various currently recognized phosphoryl relay chains of the PTS are depicted in Fig. 1A.
A bifunctional HPr kinase/phosphorylase (HprK) that catalyzes the phosphorylation of HPr at Ser-46 at the expense of ATP (18, 53, 66) as well as the dephosphorylation of P-Ser-HPr (49) was discovered in Streptococcus pyogenes (19). It plays an important regulatory role in at least three different cellular processes: (i) sugar uptake via the PTS, (ii) catabolite control protein A (CcpA)-mediated carbon catabolite repression, and (iii) inducer control via expulsion and exclusion mechanisms (for reviews, see references 7, 78, and 79). HprK homologues from gram-positive as well as gram-negative bacteria have been proposed to carry out different functions (7, 29, 97). Detailed phylogenetic analyses of HprK homologues from several bacteria have recently been presented (97).
The currently recognized structural and functional complexity of the PTS is impressive (Tables 1 and 2), but the available evidence suggests that its functional ramifications are only now beginning to be realized (7, 23). Only half of the PTS proteins recognized in E. coli have been functionally characterized (101), and as revealed by the present genomic analyses, almost all PTS proteins in other organisms are uncharacterized.
Based on the phylogeny of the IIC proteins, seven PTS permease families are currently recognized, namely, the (i) glucose (including glucoside) (Glc), (ii) fructose (including mannitol) (Fru), (iii) lactose (including N,N-diacetylchitobiose) (Lac), (iv) galactitol (Gat), (v) glucitol (Gut), (vi) mannose (Man), and (vii) L-ascorbate (Asc) families. Various sugar substrates transported by the few functionally characterized members of each of these families are presented in Table 3.
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 3. Sugar
substrates transported by various PTS
permeasesa
|
|
|
|---|
A total of 202 genomes were screened for the presence of homologues of all currently known constituents of the bacterial phosphotransferase system. These proteins include the general energy-coupling proteins EI and HPr, the IIA, IIB, IIC, and IID constituents of the enzyme II complexes, the DHA PTS proteins (DhaM, DhaL, and DhaK), and HprK. We used criteria established by Bächler (3) to detect homologues of the E. coli dihydroxyacetone PTS proteins (25). GenBank sequence identification (GI) numbers are provided for the proteins discussed in the text.
All completely sequenced genomes were obtained from NCBI (ftp://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/genomes/). A standalone version (release 2.0.10) of BLAST (1) was obtained ftp://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/blast/ and was employed to identify PTS homologues, using 57 functionally characterized PTS proteins obtained from the transporter classification database (TCDB; http://www.tcdb.org) as query sequences against each of the completely sequenced genomes. Over 3,000 protein homologues were retrieved and analyzed. Previous annotations were ignored, and all proteins were reexamined. Protein domains were identified and assigned using the NCBI CD-Search tool (42). Such rigorous scrutiny often revealed errors in previous annotations.
Enzyme II complexes that include IIA, IIB, and IIC (as well as IIDMan in the case of the mannose family) were considered to constitute complete PTS permeases. Enzyme IIC proteins that lack a cognate IIA and/or IIB domain/protein were considered incomplete systems. It should be noted that in the Glc family, and only the Glc family, several PTS porters have the IIB and IIC domains fused but lack their own IIA domain. Instead, these systems use the IIAGlc protein of another system (101). Such Glc-type systems were considered complete.
Table 4 presents an overview of our PTS genome analyses. Except for phosphoenolpyruvate synthases and pyruvate:phosphate dikinases, which are distantly related to EIs of the PTS (101) and are present in both eukaryotes and archaea, and except for a single HPr kinase homologue found in an archaeon, Methanopyrus kandleri (97), no homologues of PTS proteins were identified in any eukaryote or archaeon. Within the bacterial domain, 22% of the species analyzed (30 organisms) encode no recognizable PTS protein homologues. Twenty-onepercent (29 organisms) encode cytoplasmic PTS phosphoryl transfer proteins but lack complete membrane-integrated PTS enzyme II complexes. Finally, 57% of these bacterial species (77 organisms) have at least one complete PTS enzyme II complex as well as the requisite PTS energy-coupling proteins.
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 4. Overview
of PTS analyses of whole genomes
|
|
|
|---|
![]() View larger version (21K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 2. Relative
distribution of PTS permease families in bacterial genomes. The
occurrence of the constituent permeases of the seven different PTS
permease families (Glc, glucose; Fru, fructose; Lac, lactose; Gut,
glucitol; Gat, galactitol; Man, mannose; Asc, ascorbate) was analyzed
in the 77 bacterial species that were found to encode at least one
putative complete PTS transport system. Only complete PTS permease
systems were counted for this analysis; incomplete enzyme II complexes
and orphan enzyme II constituents were not tabulated. Total numbers of
complete PTS permeases (white bars) as well as total numbers of
organisms that encode members of the different families (black bars)
are presented. Values over the white bars indicate percentages of the
total numbers of complete permease systems. Values over the black bars
indicate percentages of the 77 organisms that have homologues of a
particular family of
permeases.
|
|
|
|---|
-proteobacterial subdivision, for which many
fully sequenced genomes are available. The alpha and beta subdivisions
had a preponderance of Glc-type systems, while the one
-proteobacterium with a complete PTS had only a Man-type
system. |
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 5. Numbers
and types of complete PTS permeases identified in each of the bacterial
kingdomsa
|
|
|
|---|
![]() View larger version (45K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 3. (A)
PTS-encoding capacities of bacterial genomes. The total number of PTS
protein homologues identified in an organism (bars) and the genome
size, in mega-bp (dots), are plotted. Each point on the x axis
indicates a different genome, with the genome size increasing from left
to right, as indicated. (B) Correlation between the numbers
of PTS proteins encoded in the various genomes and the oxygen
requirements of the bacteria. Numbers along the x axis
indicate the numbers of PTS proteins encoded in the genomes.
"NT" indicates that the bacteria do not possess PTS
permeases, while "T" indicates the presence of at least
one PTS transport system. Bars are shaded according to metabolic
capability, such as an aerobic, anaerobic, microaerophilic,
facultative, or unknown oxygen
requirement.
|
|
|
|---|
-Proteobacteria, and several primitive bacteria in
the "unclassified bacteria" category (Table
6), PTS homologues are
found in all of the major bacterial kingdoms for which sufficient
sequence data are available. Methylococcus capsulatus encodes
two homologues of the Dha proteins (see below). However, it lacks all
other PTS protein homologues, including EI and HPr. It is therefore
unlikely that this organism has a functional phosphoryl transfer
chain. |
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 6. Organisms
lacking PTS homologues
|
|
|
|---|
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 7. Organisms lacking PTS permeases but possessing PTS phosphoryl transfer proteins
|
Of the IIA homologues, Xylella species have only a single IIAMan protein while Leptospira species have only a single IIANtr protein. All others have either two IIANtr proteins, two IIAFru proteins, one each of the IIANtr and IIAFru proteins, one each of the IIANtr and IIAMan proteins, one IIANtr, one IIAFru, and one IIAMan protein, or two IIANtr and one IIAMan protein (Table 7). The species with one IIAFru, one IIANtr, and one IIAMan homologue are the two Bartonella species, while Rhodopseudomonas palustris has two IIANtr and one IIAMan protein. The fact that most organisms possess at least two homologous or nonhomologous IIA proteins suggests that the PTS phosphoryl transfer chain functions in a regulatory capacity that depends on specific functional interactions between these proteins. These putative interactions could, for example, be antagonistic or synergistic.
In summary, bacteria that possess PTS phosphoryl transfer proteins but lack PTS permeases always have at least one enzyme I (I or INtr) and one HPr (HPr or NPr). They usually have two IIA proteins and one HprK. Only for one such organism, Treponema denticola, have the catalytic activities of the phosphoryl transfer proteins been demonstrated (23). Treponema pallidum lacks an active enzyme I homologue and instead possesses a ptsI pseudogene (23). We suggest that in most cases, these PTS phosphoryl transfer proteins act together, comprising a single unified phosphoryl transfer chain (63, 65) that acts biochemically as shown in Fig. 1B. Among these bacteria, two distinct, independently functioning phosphoryl transfer chains (65) appear to be present only in Bradyrhizobium japonicum. These two chains may catalyze phosphoryl transfer as shown in Fig. 1C. It is also interesting that among these bacteria, B. japonicum is the only one that possesses a complete putative DHA PTS (see below). We suggest that pathway 1 functions to phosphorylate DHA while pathway 2 functions to coordinate carbon and nitrogen metabolism (46, 47, 63, 65).
|
|
|---|
-Proteobacteria examined either possess
just the regulatory PTS proteins (Table
7) or lack PTS homologues
altogether (Table 6).
"Candidatus Blochmannia floridanus," an
Enterobacteriaceae member, is one of the organisms that has
just a single Man-type PTS. It is possible that it once possessed Fru-
and/or Glu-type systems since many of the Enterobacteriaceae
analyzed encode several Fru-, Glu-, and Man-type PTS permeases (Table
9). None of the organisms analyzed possesses only a single
lactose-, galactitol-, or L-ascorbate-type system. However,
orphan IIA and/or IIB and/or IIC homologues of these systems were often
found. These may be residues of genome minimalization
(51) where the other
constituents of complete enzyme II complexes were
lost. |
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 8. Bacteria
with just one or two types of PTS enzyme II complexes
|
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 9. Summary
of complete PTSs in PTS-encoding organisms
|
None of the organisms that have just two types of PTS permeases have lactose-, galactitol-, or glucitol-type systems. In fact, even orphan constituents of these systems are lacking. However, several additional PTS orphan proteins (IIA, IIB, or IIC), particularly mannose IIA homologues, are found in some of these organisms. It is likely that some of these possess specific regulatory functions, but no such function is currently recognized. Others probably represent either relics of complete PTS permeases that have been partially lost or orphan genes acquired through horizontal transfer. Interestingly, in Deinococcus radiodurans, all of the PTS homologues were found on the plasmid MP1.
|
|
|---|
Streptomyces avermitilis has Glc and
Fru systems, and surprisingly, of the 10 Actinobacteria
examined, this is the only one to have HprK (GI 29826878). The HprK
homologue from this bacterium clusters separately but is closest to the
homologues from
-Proteobacteria
(97). This may represent
a case of horizontal gene transfer. Streptomyces coelicolor
has an Asc system in addition to Glc and Fru systems, but it lacks
HprK. Of the Actinobacteria, Symbiobacterium
thermophilum and Propionibacterium acnes have
the most PTS permeases, with 7 and 10 complete systems, respectively.
Both have Glc, Fru, and Lac systems, and S. thermophilum has
three Man systems while P. acnes has just one each of the
Gut-, Gat-, and Asc-type systems but no Man system.
S. thermophilum is a thermophilic bacterium that depends on microbial commensalism. Recently, a role for the Man-type PTS transporter in the establishment of symbiotic relationships has been implicated (114). The presence of three complete Man-type systems in this organism may contribute towards its commensalic growth. S. thermophilum shows remarkable similarity to bacilli and clostridia (low-G+C gram-positive bacteria) and is suggested to have shared a close common ancestor with the Bacillus/Clostridium group (105). It is interesting that the PTS family representation in this bacterium also resembles the PTS protein distribution in some of the bacilli and clostridia.
P. acnes is found ubiquitously on human skin and resides within sebaceous follicles. It has been implicated in various diseases as an opportunistic pathogen (9). Its genome encodes a great capacity to cope with changing oxygen tension, explaining its ubiquitous presence on human skin. The occurrence of a wider variety of PTS permeases may enable efficient uptake of a broad range of substrates and may allow the organism to opportunistically adapt to a pathogenic lifestyle.
All of these high-G+C gram-positive bacteria possess various orphan proteins or "partial" PTS permeases (data not shown). The IIBCGlc and IICGlc components may be functional, using the IIA/B proteins present in one of the complete Glc systems (101). Precedence for this has been observed repeatedly, as several Glc-type systems lack their own IIA protein and use the general IIA protein of the authentic glucose system (101). However, the same phenomenon has not been documented for the other PTS permease families.
The occurrence of 12 complete PTSs in C. acetobutylicum correlates with the saccharolytic lifestyle of this soil bacterium. C. perfringens is commonly found in animal and human gastrointestinal tracts as a member of the normal microflora. Interestingly, the presence of multiple Man-type PTS permeases in this organism correlates with the abundance of Man-type permeases in some of the other members of the normal intestinal microflora, such as lactobacilli, Enterococcus faecalis, and several members of the Enterobacteriaceae. One of the two Man systems in C. acetobutylicum is encoded on the plasmid pSOL1.
Most of the other low-G+C gram-positive bacteria have additional PTS permeases, and some, such as three Listeria species and Lactobacillus plantarum, have all seven PTS enzyme II complex types. The bacteria with the most pts genes and PTS permeases are L. monocytogenes, with 91 genes and 30 complete PTS permeases plus several partial systems, and Enterococcus faecalis, with 93 genes and 25 complete permeases plus 14 partial systems, all of which have the IIC constituent (data not shown). Several of these may be functional, using components from the complete systems (101). The maximal percentage of genetic material devoted to the PTS is observed for L. monocytogenes, with 3.2% of all its genes encoding PTS proteins.
Of the small-genome Mollicutes organisms, all but two possess complete Glc- and Fru-type PTS permeases as well as an HprK homologue (with the exception of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae), and several have an Asc system as well. The two exceptions (discussed above) are listed in Tables 6 and 7. A few reports have discussed some of the PTS proteins from the different Mycoplasma species (26, 30, 48, 59). The regulation of HprK in the Mollicutes may be different from that in other Firmicutes (26). The distribution and numbers of PTS permeases in the Mollicutes also differ from those in other Firmicutes. The various species within the Mycoplasma genus also show differences. Most surprisingly, Mycoplasma pulmonis and Mycoplasma pneumoniae have three PTS permeases each, Mycoplasma mycoides has four, M. hyopneumoniae has five, and M. florum and Mycoplasma penetrans have eight and nine, respectively. In some of these bacteria with genome sizes of 0.79 to 1.36 Mbp, a major fraction of the genetic material (over 2%) is devoted to the PTS. Their obligate parasitic lifestyle and dependence on glycolysis as the ATP-generating pathway may explain the retention of PTS genes, even under conditions that result in extensive genome reduction (21).
In the beta subdivision, all organisms possess regulatory PTS proteins (Tables 7 and 9), and a few also have PTS permeases that belong exclusively to the Glc and Fru families. The maximal number of probable complete PTS permeases is four, for Chromobacterium violaceum. C. violaceum lives in tropical and subtropical regions in soil and water but can occasionally be pathogenic in immunocompromised individuals, causing diarrhea. No other ß-proteobacterium has more than two complete PTS permeases. While Ralstonia solanacearum has a Glc- and a Fru-type system, Burkholderia species have only a single Glc-type system. The Glc system in R. solanacearum was found encoded in the plasmid pGMI-1000MP. Burkholderia pseudomallei is an opportunistic pathogen in humans that is usually found in terrestrial environments, while Burkholderia mallei is a host-adapted pathogen in animals and is not found outside the host.
In the gamma subdivision, only the endosymbiont of the tsetse fly, Wigglesworthia glossinidia, and the obligate methanotroph Methylococcus capsulatus lack PTS homologues altogether (Table 6). Buchnera species, which are endosymbionts of aphids, have both a single Glc system and a single Fru system. "Candidatus Blochmannia floridanus," an endosymbiont of the carpenter ant, has only a mannose system. All other enterobacteria have multiple PTS permeases. It is therefore clear that these endosymbionts have retained the minimal number of PTS permeases to allow utilization of a very restricted number of sugars provided by the host organism (11).
Several E. coli, Shigella, and Salmonella strains (see below) have all seven types of PTS permease systems. The different strains of E. coli probably have between 17 and 26 functional PTS permeases. These variations, observed for various E. coli/Shigella strains, suggest that the gain and loss of genetic material encoding PTS proteins have occurred frequently and repeatedly during the evolution of single species (108). Scrutiny of Table 9 will reveal that this is a common observation for many bacterial species and genera.
Other
-Proteobacteria listed
in Table 9 have far fewer
PTS permeases. The pseudomonads, for example, have just one or two. The
three species of Pseudomonas studied, all with large genome
sizes of over 6 Mb, vary from nonpathogenic (P. putida) to
plant pathogenic (P. syringae) to opportunistically human
pathogenic (P. aeruginosa). In P. aeruginosa, one PTS
permease is fructose specific while the other is
N-acetylglucosamine specific
(68; I. T.
Paulsen, personal communication). The Pasteurellales have 1 to
8 PTS permeases, vibrios have 7 to 12 PTS permeases, and the two
Xanthomonas species studied, which are found exclusively
associated with their plant hosts and are not found free in the soil,
have just one fructose-type system each
(17,
80,
110). Among the
Pasteurellales, "Mannheimia
succiniciproducens" (proposed name), which is found in
bovine rumen, has the largest number of PTS permeases. The rumen is the
first section of the stomach in ruminants, where feed is collected for
initial digestion. The presence of several PTS transporters in ruminant
bacteria perhaps represents an adaptation to a nutrient-rich,
oxygen-free ecological niche. Pasteurella multocida is found
in the mucous lining of animal intestines, in the genitalia, and in
respiratory tissues. It has five PTS permeases, each belonging to a
different PTS family. Each of the five PTS permeases is perhaps
expressed differentially depending on the host organ. H.
ducreyi and H. influenzae are an obligate pathogen and an
obligate parasite, respectively, in humans. The smaller numbers of PTS
permeases in these bacteria may have resulted from their evolutionary
adaptation to the homeostatic environment of
the host.
Vibrios are abundant in marine and freshwater environments. The three species analyzed are pathogenic to humans. Vibrio vulnificus, which is an opportunistic pathogen causing a variety of diseases in immunocompromised patients, has Man-type PTS permeases that are lacking in the other two species. Interestingly, it also has the largest number of PTS permeases among the three Vibrio species analyzed. Vibrio parahaemolyticus, which causes gastroenteritis, and Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of cholera, have similar complements of PTS proteins. The Asc systems, a few of the Fru PTS permeases, one of the two Man systems in V. vulnificus, and a few other orphan PTS proteins are encoded in the smaller chromosome, chromosome II, in all three species. All other PTS permeases are encoded in chromosome I.
Another spirochete species, Spirochaeta aurantia, whose genome has not yet been sequenced, has only a Fru-type system with specificity for mannitol (82). In this unusual system, the synthesis of all PTS enzymes (enzyme I, HPr, and the mannitol enzyme II) as well as that of mannitol-1-P dehydrogenase is induced 200-fold by the inclusion of mannitol in the growth medium (83).
|
|
|---|
Table
10 presents all bacteria for which we found homologues of the subunits of
the DHA PTS enzyme II complex. No such homologues were found in
cyanobacteria, chlamydia, and the epsilon division of the
Proteobacteria. Twenty-seven organisms appear to have a
complete DHA PTS, and of these, 15 (including two Mycoplasma
species) are low-G+C gram-positive bacteria. Other organisms
with complete DHA PTS enzyme II complexes include (i)
-,
-, and
-Proteobacteria (six organisms),
including Bradyrhizobium japonicum (
),
Mannheimia succiniciproducens (
),
Desulfovibrio vulgaris (
), E. coli
(
), Shigella flexneri (
), and
Mesorhizobium loti (
); (ii) high-G+C
gram-positive bacteria (five organisms), including Streptomyces
avermitilis, S. coelicolor, Corynebacterium
diphtheriae, Leifsonia xyli, and Propionibacterium
acnes; and (iii) other divergent organisms, including
Fusobacterium nucleatum and Deinococcus radiodurans.
Unlike all other DhaL proteins examined, that in D.
radiodurans is split into two polypeptide chains. These chains
could only be identified using nucleotide BLAST searches because these
protein fragments had not been assigned protein accession numbers. All
four putative dha genes in D. radiodurans (including
the genes for DhaM and DhaK and the two split genes that together
comprise DhaL) were adjacent on a plasmid, the MPI plasmid
(41,
109). Splicing of the
putative DhaL gene could have resulted from a sequencing error.
Furthermore, since the functionality of its gene product has not been
demonstrated, the significance of this observation has yet to be
determined.
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 10. Organisms
that encode a putative complete DHA PTSa
|
-Proteobacteria,
Fusobacterium nucleatum, one high-G+C gram-positive
bacterium, and eight low-G+C gram-positive bacteria (Table
10). DhaM in these
systems consists of only a IIADha domain.
Category B
organisms have just one DHA PTS, but their DhaM proteins have the
IIADha domain fused to other PTS protein domains. These
fused proteins include IIADha-HPr fusions, found in C.
diphtheriae (GI 38234870) and L. xyli (GI 50954678), a
single full-length IIADha-HPr-EI fusion (GI 46579394),
present in D. vulgaris, and tridomain proteins with a
truncated enzyme I, IIADha-HPr-EI
, characteristic
of the E. coli DhaM protein, found in
-Proteobacteria (Table
10). Only category B
systems have the IIADha domain fused to other PTS protein
domains.
Listeria species have two complete sets of DHA PTS (category C). Category D, which includes bacteria that possess a complete DHA PTS plus an extra DhaK, includes only low-G+C gram-positive bacteria. Possibly, the extra DhaK protein allows phosphorylation of an alternative substrate. It is always encoded by a gene distantly related to that encoding DhaK carried within the dha operon, which also encodes the remaining proteins of the complete DHA system.
Category E systems, with complete PEP- and
ATP-dependent DHA phosphorylating systems, are from two
high-G+C gram-positive bacteria. Category F, with just one
-proteobacterial representative, has complete PEP- and
ATP-dependent systems but also has two extra DhaKs (GI 13476064 and GI
13488187) and one extra DhaL (GI 13476063). One of the DhaK homologues
(GI 13488187) of M. loti is encoded on plasmid
pMLa.
Several bacteria lack a complete DHA PTS but nevertheless encode within their genomes at least one PTS Dha homologue, as revealed by the data in Table 11. Several different combinations of these proteins can be found. For example, two organisms each have only DhaM (category A) or DhaL (category B). No organism has just DhaK. Just three organisms have only ATP-dependent DhaKL (category C). The DhaKL protein (GI 17937250) of A. tumefaciens is encoded on the linear chromosome. Several bacteria (category D) have both DhaK and DhaL, and one of these organisms (Brucella melitensis) has a second copy of DhaL (GI 17986682) as well as a IIAMan homologue (GI 17988315) that more closely resembles E. coli IIAMan than IIADha. Category E includes four organisms encoding DhaK, DhaL, and DhaKL, and three of these organisms have a IIAMan homologue. All four genes encoding the Dha proteins in Sinorhizobium meliloti were found on the plasmid pSymB. In both B. mallei and B. pseudomallei, the DhaK and DhaL proteins are encoded on chromosome 2, while the DhaKL protein is encoded on chromosome 1 along with the other PTS homologues found in these organisms. Interestingly, Bacillus cereus, which lacks the orphan IIAMan homologue, has a short DhaL fragment (GI 52144352). Finally, organisms in category F, all Bacillus species, have DhaKL as well as DhaK. It seems likely that many of these orphan PTS Dha proteins have resulted from genome minimalization, but the possibility that some of them serve a specific function, perhaps to allow phosphorylation of a novel substrate or to provide a regulatory function, should be kept in mind.
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 11. Homologues of Dha proteins in organisms that lack a complete DHA PTSa
|
Of the organisms listed in Table 11, Bartonella quintana has DhaM (GI 49473737) and several PTS energy-coupling proteins, but no complete enzyme II complex (Table 7); Brucella melitensis has DhaK (GI 17986679), DhaL (GI 17986680), and a IIAMan-like homologue (GI 17988315), as well as several PTS energy-coupling proteins, but no IIADha and no PTS permeases; and Methylococcus capsulatus has DhaK (GI 53802782) and DhaL (GI 53802783), but no other PTS protein of any kind. It seems likely that none of these organisms can phosphorylate DHA with either PEP or ATP, but conceivably M. capsulatus might use ATP with DhaK and DhaL in a split DhaKL system. We tentatively suggest that some of these organisms are "in transition," losing or gaining complete systems, either by genome reduction or by horizontal transfer, respectively (51, 108).
|
|
|---|
![]() View larger version (12K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 4. Phylogenetic
tree for the putative ATP-dependent DHA kinases. The DhaKL fusion
proteins from 12 organisms (Tables
10 and
11) and the known
ATP-dependent dihydroxyacetone kinase from Citrobacter
freundii (Cfr) were aligned using the Clustal X program, and
neighbor-joining trees were generated
(102). Trees were viewed
using the TreeViewPPC program
(113). When multiple
strains of a species had been sequenced, only one orthologue was
included.
|
![]() ![]() View larger version (55K): [in a new window] |
FIG.5. Phylogenetic trees for DhaK (A), DhaL (B), and DhaM (C) homologues. The trees were generated as described in the legend to Fig. 4. Multiple paralogues from a single organism are distinguished by numbers at the ends of the names. For the DhaK and DhaL trees, the DhaKL fusion proteins were split into the DhaK and DhaL domains and were included in the two trees, respectively. These domains are indicated with an "F" at the ends of the names, and their clusters are designated with letters (A, B, C, and D), while the remaining homologues were grouped numerically into seven clusters. The alphabetical and numerical cluster designations were maintained in the two trees shown in panels A and B. The Clustal X program (102) was used to derive the trees. Abbreviations of organism names are listed in Tables 10 and 11.
|
-proteobacterium, M. loti (Table
10, category F). The
extra M. loti protein (Mlo3) (GI 13488187) is by itself
(between clusters 5 and 6) (Fig.
5A), while all extra
DhaKs from low-G+C gram-positive bacteria cluster together
(cluster 1c). We conclude that these extra DhaL and DhaK
proteins did not arise by recent gene duplication events. Instead, they
either arose early to fulfill a specific but unknown function or became
"orphans" as a result of the genetic loss of their
partner proteins. In categories D and E in Table 11, the DhaL and DhaK proteins are present, but no DhaM homologue could be found. All of the DhaL-DhaK pairs were derived from proteobacteria. Most of these proteins cluster together (cluster 5) in both the DhaL (Fig. 5B) and DhaK (Fig. 5A) trees. They do not cluster with the ATP-dependent DhaKL kinases (clusters A to D). These observations led us to suggest that these DhaL-DhaK protein pairs have coevolved from a common ancestor and serve a unified but unknown function. As noted above, it is possible that they use ATP or another phosphoryl donor to phosphorylate DHA. Alternatively, they could act on another substrate. It is interesting that the Mlo2 DhaL protein (GI 13476063) clusters with Sme2 (GI 16264045) and Bme2 (GI 17986682) (Fig. 5B). The corresponding Mlo2 DhaK protein (GI 13476064) (Fig. 5A) is by itself because there is no corresponding orthologue in S. meliloti and B. melitensis.
|
|
|---|
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 12. PTS
fusion proteins that contain only PTS protein domains
|
Unfused IIA, IIB, and IIC domains were identified in all PTS families except the Gut family, where an unfused IIB domain could not be found. This is an unusual case because only in the Gut family is the transmembrane IIC protein split into two separate polypeptide chains, i.e., IIC1, with four or five putative transmembrane segments, and IIC2, with three putative transmembrane segments. In all Gut systems, B is fused N-terminally to C1 (encoded by gutE), while C2 (encoded by gutA) is present as a distinct unfused polypeptide chain. IIAGut (encoded by gutB) is never fused to any other protein domain. Homology between the glucitol IIC proteins and other PTS IIC domains has not been demonstrated (13, 71, 111).
As noted above, only the Man family includes a IID domain. While the Man enzyme II complex usually has all four of its protein constituents unfused, IIA can be fused N-terminally to IIB, and IIC can be fused N-terminally to IID. No other fusion combinations in the Man family were detected. Thus, although A-B fusions occur, B-A fusions do not, and although C-D fusions occur, D-C fusions could not be found. Moreover, A and B are never fused to C or D (Table 12).
While A-B fusions were found only in the Man and Asc families, B-A fusions were found only in the Glc family. In contrast, both B-C and C-B fusions were identified in both the Glc and Fru families, and the latter fusion type was also found in the Lac and Asc families.
Tridomain PTS permease proteins with IIA, IIB, and IIC fused in single polypeptide chains were restricted to the Glc and Fru families, and four of the six possibilities were found. Thus, ABC, BCA, and CBA were identified in both families, and ACB was found in the Fru family, but BAC and CAB were not found. It is surprising that A can be fused either N-terminally or C-terminally to C in a tridomain protein. Interestingly, this only occurs when B is directly fused to C, but not to A. These two domains (A and C) were never found linked in a bidomain protein. While stereospecific constraints may explain some of these observations, others seem inexplicable (see "Conclusions").
Some of the fusions
were found only in certain taxonomic groups. For example, the EI-IIA,
HPr-IIA, IIA-HPr, HPr-EI-IIA, and IIA-HPr-EI proteins in the Fru family
as well as IIA-HPr-EI fusions in the Glc and Dha families were found
only in Proteobacteria. The two IIA-HPr fusions found in the
Dha family were found in two Actinobacteria,
Corynebacterium diphtheriae (GI 38234870) and Leifsonia
xyli (GI 50954678). A single EI-IIAFru protein (GI
15804544) was found in only one of the four strains of E. coli
analyzed, strain O157:H7 EDL933. This fusion could have resulted from a
sequencing error that split the HPr-EI-IIAFru protein found
in the other three strains of E. coli. The
HPr-EI-IIAFru fusion was found in several
-Proteobacteria and one member of the
ß-Proteobacteria, Chromobacterium violaceum
(GI 34497766). Three HPr-IIANtr (Fru family) fusions were
found in the three Vibrio species analyzed. Although
IIAFru-HPr fusions were found only in
-Proteobacteria, IIAFru-HPr-EI fusions
were found in
-, ß-, and
-Proteobacteria. IIAGlc-HPr-EI fusions
were found mostly in ß-Proteobacteria, but also in
Caulobacter crescentus (
-Proteobacteria; GI
16124703 and 16124792) and P. aeruginosa
(
-Proteobacteria; GI 15598955).
The
IIBAGlc fusion was found only in Staphylococcus
aureus (GI 49482502). Since this fusion was found in all five
strains of S. aureus analyzed, it is unlikely to be a
sequencing artifact. IIABCGlc fusions were found (as two
copies) only in the two Lactobacillus species analyzed.
IIABAsc fusions were found only in the
Actinobacteria. Two IICDMan fusions were found in
two thermophilic bacteria, Symbiobacterium thermophilum (GI
51892416) and Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis (GI 20806720).
The IICBLac fusions were found only in a few
Firmicutes, specifically in Staphylococcus species,
Streptococcus species, and Clostridium acetobutylicum
(GI 15895217). While the IIBCAFru fusions were found only in
the Firmicutes, the IIACBFru fusion was found only
in the three Vibrio species
(
-Proteobacteria). All other fusions were found
distributed in diverse taxonomic groups, although interestingly, the
IIBCFru and IICBAFru fusions predominated in
Proteobacteria while the IIBCAGlc and
IIABCFru fusions were found mostly in Firmicutes
and Actinobacteria. IICBAGlc fusions also
predominated in the
Firmicutes.
|
|
|---|
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 13. PTS
proteins with extra non-PTS domainsa
|
Other PTS proteins with C-terminal X domains are from organisms within the Mycoplasma group (category B). The C-terminal X domains in these proteins share homology with proteins that interact with DNA, such as the MAD (mitotic arrest deficient or mitotic checkpoint) proteins (107), the Smc (structural maintenance of chromosomes) proteins (34), the SbcC protein (an ATPase involved in DNA repair) (15), the HEC1 (highly expressed in cancer) protein, which may play a role in chromosomal segregation (43), and the TOPEUc (DNA topoisomerase 1 [Eukaryota]) protein (92). All of these homologous domains are linked to IICGlc domains in various PTS permeases (Table 13). It is possible that some of these X domains function in DNA binding or in protein-protein interactions. The PTS proteins to which these X domains in category B are fused include IIABCGlc proteins as well as IIBCGlc, IIBCFru, and IICAsc proteins.
X domains are fused N-terminally to IIANtr
domains in bacteria of the chlamydial kingdom, in the
-proteobacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens, and in the
spirochete Treponema denticola (category C in Table
13). At least some of
these domains are homologous to helix-turn-helix DNA binding domains in
transcriptional regulators of the MerR family
(8). It seems likely that
these proteins function in DNA binding, possibly to regulate gene
expression in response to PTS IIANtr domain phosphorylation.
In other fusions, the X domains, of variable size and sequence, are
fused to IIAGat, IIBFru, and IIBCFru
proteins.
In category D, we found X domains linked N-terminally to the integral membrane IICGlc or IICGut domain. In the Salmonella IICGlc protein, the X domain is 165 residues long, but in the IIC2Gut homologue from M. loti, it is only 50 residues long.
In category E (miscellaneous), we found X domains
linked both N- and C-terminally to a partially homologous
IICFru protein. This could be a sequence-divergent IIBCA
(Table 12).
Finally, there is an X
IIBAsc (X
= 80 residues) and a
IIBGlc-X(X = 40
residues) protein where the IIB domains are N-terminally truncated.
Because of the truncations, it is unlikely that these proteins function
as classical PTS phosphoryl transfer
proteins.
Vibrio species and Wolinella succinogenes have IICLac homologues fused to C-terminal DUF2 domains (category F). The DUF2 domain, now characterized as the EAL domain, occurs ubiquitously in bacteria and has been shown to be a characteristic feature of cyclic diguanylate-specific phosphodiesterases (89, 95). Moreover, putative Na+/H+ antiporters of the monovalent cation-proton antiporter 2 family (TC no. 2.A.37) are linked to IIAFru domains in Pirellula and Borrelia species (category G). C-terminal IIAGlc-like domains in ß-galactoside permeases of the GPH family (TC no. 2.A.2) are found in lactobacilli, where they serve a regulatory function (60, 61). In Pasteurella multocida, a triosephosphate isomerase, a glycolytic enzyme involved in the reversible interconversion of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate and dihydroxyacetone phosphate, contains a C-terminally fused IIBGlc domain. Finally, in Thermoanaerobacter tengcongensis, a transcriptional regulator with an ATPase domain is fused to a C-terminal IIAFru domain. The domain organization in this protein most closely resembles the domain structure of the LevR protein of Bacillus subtilis, except that the IIBGat domain cannot be recognized, possibly due to extensive sequence divergence, and the C-terminal PRD domain is replaced with a IIAFru-like domain. This structure is reminiscent of an HPr-transcription factor fusion protein identified previously in Clostridium acetobutylicum, where an HPr-like domain is fused N-terminally to a similar (in sequence) transcription factor (73).
The results summarized in this section and in Table 13 lead to the suggestion that PTS proteins and their phosphorylation regulate macromolecular interactions such as protein-protein and protein-DNA binding. The identification of these fusion proteins leads to predictions with respect to several novel regulatory functions of the PTS, including the regulation of ion transport, transcription, enzymatic activities, and several types of macromolecular interactions. It is likely that these postulated regulatory functions will prove to augment the known list of PTS functions presented in Table 2. It should be noted that in some cases where non-PTS domains of unknown function are apparently fused to PTS domains, errors in sequencing and ORF prediction could account for artifactual fusions.
|
|
|---|
|
View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 14. Differences
in PTS protein composition between strains of single bacterial species
|
Two Bacillus species, B. cereus and B. licheniformis, include strains that differ with respect to the presence or absence of a single PTS permease system, an ascorbate (Asc)-type system for B. cereus and a fructose (Fru)-type system for B. licheniformis. Of the two strains of Listeria monocytogenes that have had their genomes sequenced, one (EGD-e) has two extra Glc systems, three extra Fru systems, and one extra Asc system compared to the other (4bF2365).
The three species of Streptococcus listed in Table 14 also show strain differences. The two Streptococcus agalactiae strains differ with respect to the presence or absence of a complete Lac system. The five S. pyogenes strains differ from each other in that two have an extra complete Dha system as well as an extra orphan DhaK protein that is lacking in the other three strains. The two sequenced S. pneumoniae strains differ in that one possesses a complete Fru system and a IIANtr protein that are lacking in the other strain. Additionally, the R6 strain of S. pneumoniae has a fused BglG-IIAFru protein (GI 15902323) which is split into two separate proteins, BglG (GI 15900239) and IIAFru (GI 15900240), in strain TIGR4. Whether this difference is due to a sequencing error cannot be determined with certainty using bioinformatic approaches alone.
In each case where strain differences were observed for a single species, particularly where genes encoding PTS proteins were either present or lacking, one can conclude that pts genes have been gained and lost relatively frequently during recent evolutionary history. This observation suggests that these genes have been transferred horizontally with a high frequency. This conclusion is substantiated by phylogenetic relationships which argue against a strict vertical descent for several PTS permeases (data not shown). It is interesting that many of the strain differences we observed involve the gain or loss of complete enzyme II complexes, suggesting that the acquisition or loss of these genes has functional significance and was therefore subject to selection.
|
|
|---|
-,
-,
-, and
-proteobacteria, several actinobacteria, and
one mollicute also lacked PTS protein homologues (Table
6). Except for the
cyanobacteria, many of these pts gene-lacking genomes probably
resulted from genome minimalization. Twenty-nine species of bacteria
were found to possess only soluble PTS protein homologues, presumed to
function in regulation (7,
23). These organisms
included the chlamydiae, several spirochetes, a green bacterium,
Chlorobium tepidum, and several proteobacteria, particularly
in the alpha and beta subcategories (Table
7). Nevertheless, bacteria
with complete complements of PTS energy-coupling proteins plus
permeases could be found in almost all of these bacterial kingdoms,
except the chlamydial kingdom and the primitive bacterial kingdoms
(Table 9). It would
therefore appear on the basis of these observations that PTS
protein-encoding genes have been gained and lost with a high
frequency. This last conclusion was substantiated by analyses of various strains of a single species and of various species in a single genus where variations in the complement of PTS permeases varied drastically (Table 14). Thus, for example, different E. coli strains possess between 17 and 26 PTS permeases, and the different strains differ with respect to the presence of members of 4 PTS permease families (Asc, Gat, Man, and Lac; Table 14).Similarly, major differences were observed between different strains of Vibrio vulnificus, Listeria monocytogenes, and several Streptococcus species (Table 14). In contrast, several sequenced strains of other species (including Chlamydophila pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Buchnera aphidicola, Xylella fastidiosa, and Neisseria meningitidis) exhibited no differences in PTS protein content. We concluded that the gain and loss of PTS permeases has occurred repeatedly, but in a species-specific fashion. This has apparently resulted from genome minimalism (51) as well as the horizontal transfer of genetic information encoding PTS permeases and energy-coupling proteins (108). The detection of genes encoding PTS protein homologues on mobile genetic elements (14, 88, 103, 112; see above) substantiates this last conclusion. Recently, the evolution of the mannose PTS transporters has been discussed, and extensive horizontal transfer of the genetic material encoding these systems has been documented (114).
Within a single coherent genus, different species similarly show differences in PTS permease content. Thus, corynebacterial species may either possess or lack a fructose-type PTS and an ascorbate-type PTS permease. More surprising, Mycoplasma species with drastically reduced genome sizes may possess between two and nine complete PTS permeases. Differences were also noted among the Streptomyces and Clostridium species (Table 9).
In this study, we divided the PTS permeases into seven families (Glc, Fru, Lac, Gut, Gat, Man, and Asc) (Table 9). The occurrence of the members of these families is summarized in Fig. 2. Of the 77 bacterial species analyzed that encode PTS permeases within their genomes, the glucose (Glc) family was most highly represented. The order of prevalence of the seven families was as follows: Glc (30%) > Fru (25%) > Man (15%) > Lac (14%) > Asc (9%) > Gat (4%) > Gut (3%). However, the different taxonomic groups show various proportions of each of the PTS permease families. While the most abundant family in the Firmicutes was the Glc family, followed by Fru, Lac, and Man, the most prevalent family in the Proteobacteria was the Fru family, followed by Glc, Man, and Asc. When it is considered that the Glc, Fru, and Lac families actually belong to a single superfamily, while the Gat and Asc families combine to form a second superfamily (13, 33, 81), it can be concluded that the Glc/Fru/Lac superfamily includes 69% of all PTS permeases. The Man family includes 15%, the Asc/Gat superfamily includes 13%, and the Gut family includes 3%. This observation is in agreement with our suggestion that the fructose PTS was the first primordial system to have evolved (75, 81). These arguments are strengthened by the finding reported here that more bacteria with a single type of PTS permease have a Fru-type system than any other type.
The physiological functions of HprK homologues have been
identified only for the low-G+C gram-positive
Firmicutes, although many such homologues have been identified
in gram-negative bacterial kingdoms
(29,
97). We have postulated
that all such enzymes serve regulatory functions, but only in a few
instances are clues available as to what those functions may be. In the
case of
-Proteobacteria, truncated HprKs are found in
operons with genes encoding the gluconeogenic enzyme PEP carboxykinase,
a sensor kinase/response regulator pair, and other PTS proteins such as
HPr and IIA homologues
(29). We have proposed
that the PTS proteins function in a phosphoryl transfer cascade
(65) that regulates the
expression of the pck gene encoding PEP carboxykinase,
possibly via the sensor kinase/response regulator pair
(7,
29). No experimental data
have bearing on this point. The multiple distantly related HprKs found
in other
-Proteobacteria, such as Rhodospirillum
rubrum, are also of unknown function
(97).
We have concluded that the DHA PTS enzyme II complex is a recently evolved system derived from an ATP-dependent DHA kinase (81). The fact that the DhaM components vary dramatically in their domain compositions argues in favor of this conclusion. Nevertheless, these systems occur in a wide range of bacterial kingdoms (Table 10). This may have resulted from horizontal transfer of the genes encoding these systems, as suggested by our phylogenetic analyses (see below).
Phylogenetic analyses revealed a lack of orthology between PTS Dha proteins from a variety of bacteria. Thus, although an excellent phylogenetic correlation was observed between the DhaK, DhaL, and DhaM trees (Fig. 5), a very poor correlation was observed between these trees and the 16S rRNA trees for the corresponding organisms (data not shown). The implication is that while little or no shuffling of the three constituents of the Dha systems has occurred throughout their evolutionary divergence, they have been transferred laterally together as a unit. While orphan PTS proteins are frequently encoded within bacterial genomes, they may not always be functional. They may be the result of residual inactive genetic information resulting from genome minimalism (51).
The
instability of the DHA PTS is further indicated by the variation in the
structures of the DhaM components. Some DhaM proteins contain only the
IIADha domain, but three homologous fusion proteins were
also identified. These included (i) a IIADha-HPr fusion,
(ii) a IIADha-HPr-EI fusion, and (iii) a
IIADha-HPr-EI
fusion with the C-terminal region of
enzyme I missing. In E. coli, which possesses a DhaM protein
with a type 3 fusion structure, the classical enzyme I and HPr are
required for DhaM phosphorylation. These two energy-coupling proteins
may not be required for phosphorylation of the type 2 fusion proteins.
Furthermore, in Bradyrhizobium japonicum, the dha
operon encodes DhaM, HPr, and enzyme I with the gene order
dhaMHI, the same order as that observed for the type 2 and
type 3 fusion proteins mentioned above. The type 2 fusion proteins
could have resulted from the elimination of chain termination codons
and/or the introduction of intragenic microdeletions. It thus seems
that the scenario found in B. japonicum could represent a
transitional state towards production of the tridomain fusion proteins.
We may be visualizing a "snapshot" of the evolutionary
process still in progress
(81).
We have identified many types of previously unidentified PTS protein fusions present in the bacterial genomes analyzed. EI-IIA fusions with IIA C-terminally linked to EI, but no IIA-EI fusions with IIA N-terminally linked to EI, were identified. Conversely, among tridomain proteins containing EI, HPr and IIA, HPr-I-IIA, and IIA-HPr-I fusions were identified, but no fusions had HPr directly linked to the C terminus of EI. These observations cannot be related to specific stereospecific requirements for the HPr-IIA interaction since both HPr-IIA and IIA-HPr fusion types were found. The explanation may be related to the fact that the HPr binding domain in EI is the N-terminal domain (40, 58). Thus, HPr must be in the proximity of this domain, and consequently, N-terminal but not C-terminal fusions of HPr to EI may be stereospecifically allowed. The fact that IIA can be linked to EI C-terminally but not N-terminally may be similarly explained. Thus, steric hindrance and competition between HPr and IIA may prevent the covalent association of IIA with the N-terminal domain of EI. In other cases where certain domain fusions are favored over others, preferred, but not absolutely required, associative properties of the fused domains may provide an explanation.
We have found PTS protein domains fused to a variety of novel non-PTS proteins and protein domains. The fusion of PTS protein domains to (or within) transcriptional regulators (24, 29, 98, 106) and non-PTS transport proteins (60, 61) had been known previously. Our genome analyses revealed many additional fusions of this general type (Table 13). These included Na+/H+ antiporter homologues with C-terminally fused IIAFru-like domains, triose-P isomerase homologues with C-terminally fused IIBGlc-like domains, and PspF-type putative transcriptional regulatory proteins of the NtrC family, which most closely resemble LevR of Bacillus subtilis (5, 16), fused C-terminally to IIAFru-like domains. However, many other types of domains were found in association with PTS protein domains. These included domains homologous to the CBS, MAD, Sbc, HEC1, DUF2, and helix-turn-helix domains. Several of these domains are known to be involved in signal transduction, and more generally, in macromolecular (protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid) interactions. Elucidation of the generalized functions of the non-PTS associative domains will be of great value in determining the specific functions of the fused proteins tabulated in Table 13. Such efforts should keep molecular biologists entertained for decades to come.
We thank Mary Beth Hiller for her assistance in the preparation of the manuscript.
|
|
|---|
54 Pu promoter of Pseudomonas
putida. J. Bacteriol.
182:956-960.
54) of Klebsiella pneumoniae
affect expression from
54-dependent promoters.Mol. Microbiol.
3:1765-1775.[CrossRef][Medline]
This article has been cited by other articles:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology. For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»