Recombinant Deg/HtrA proteases from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 differ in substrate specificity, biochemical characteristics and mechanism

• Cyanobacteria require efficient protein quality control mechanisms to survive under dynamic, often stressful environmental conditions. It was reported that three serine proteases, HtrA, HhoA and HhoB are important for survival of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 under high light and temperature stresses and might have redundant physiological functions. Here we show that all three proteases can degrade unfolded model substrates, but differ in respect to cleavage sites, temperature and pH optima. For recombinant HhoA, and to a lesser extent for HtrA, we observed an interesting shift in the pH optimum from slightly acidic to alkaline in the presence of Mg2+ and Ca2+ ions. All three proteases formed different homo-oligomeric complexes with and without substrate, implying mechanistic differences in comparison to each other and to the well-studied Escherichia coli orthologues DegP and DegS. Deletion of the PDZ domain decreased, but not abolished proteolytic activity of all three proteases, and prevented substrate-induced formation of complexes higher than trimers by HtrA and HhoA. In summary, biochemical characterisation of HtrA, HhoA and HhoB lays the foundation for a better understanding of their overlapping, but not completely redundant stress resistance functions in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803.

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