| 1. |
- Aggarwal, Swati, et al.
(author)
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A protocol for production of perdeuterated OmpF porin for neutron crystallography
- 2021
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In: Protein Expression and Purification. - : Elsevier BV. - 1046-5928. ; 188
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Hydrogen atoms are at the limit of visibility in X-ray structures even at high resolution. Neutron macromolecular crystallography (NMX) is an unambiguous method to locate hydrogens and study the significance of hydrogen bonding interactions in biological systems. Since NMX requires very large crystals, very few neutron structures of proteins have been determined yet. In addition, the most common hydrogen isotope 1H gives rise to significant background due to its large incoherent scattering cross-section. Therefore, it is advantageous to substitute as many hydrogens as possible with the heavier isotope 2H (deuterium) to reduce the sample volume requirement. While the solvent exchangeable hydrogens can be substituted by dissolving the protein in heavy water, complete deuterium labelling – perdeuteration – requires the protein to be expressed in heavy water with a deuterated carbon source. In this work, we developed an optimized method for large scale production of deuterium-labelled bacterial outer membrane protein F (OmpF) for NMX. OmpF was produced using deuterated media with different carbon sources. Mass spectrometry verified the integrity and level of deuteration of purified OmpF. Perdeuterated OmpF crystals diffracted X-rays to a resolution of 1.9 Å. This work lays the foundation for structural studies of membrane protein by neutron diffraction in future.
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| 2. |
- Franza, Thierry, et al.
(author)
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NAD+ pool depletion as a signal for the Rex regulon involved in Streptococcus agalactiae virulence
- 2021
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In: PLoS Pathogens. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1553-7366 .- 1553-7374. ; 17:8
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In many Gram-positive bacteria, the redox-sensing transcriptional repressor Rex controls central carbon and energy metabolism by sensing the intra cellular balance between the reduced and oxidized forms of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide; the NADH/NAD+ ratio. Here, we report high-resolution crystal structures and characterization of a Rex ortholog (Gbs1167) in the opportunistic pathogen, Streptococcus agalactiae, also known as group B streptococcus (GBS). We present structures of Rex bound to NAD+ and to a DNA operator which are the first structures of a Rex-family member from a pathogenic bacterium. The structures reveal the molecular basis of DNA binding and the conformation alterations between the free NAD+ complex and DNA-bound form of Rex. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that GBS Rex controls not only central metabolism, but also expression of the monocistronic rex gene as well as virulence gene expression. Rex enhances GBS virulence after disseminated infection in mice. Mechanistically, NAD+ stabilizes Rex as a repressor in the absence of NADH. However, GBS Rex is unique compared to Rex regulators previously characterized because of its sensing mechanism: we show that it primarily responds to NAD+ levels (or growth rate) rather than to the NADH/NAD+ ratio. These results indicate that Rex plays a key role in GBS pathogenicity by modulating virulence factor gene expression and carbon metabolism to harvest nutrients from the host.
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| 3. |
- Kelpšas, Vinardas, et al.
(author)
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Enhancing protein perdeuteration by experimental evolution of Escherichia coli K-12 for rapid growth in deuterium-based media
- 2021
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In: Protein Science. - : Wiley. - 0961-8368 .- 1469-896X. ; 30:12, s. 2457-2473
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Deuterium is a natural low abundance stable hydrogen isotope that in high concentrations negatively affects growth of cells. Here, we have studied growth of Escherichia coli MG1655, a wild-type laboratory strain of E. coli K-12, in deuterated glycerol minimal medium. The growth rate and final biomass in deuterated medium is substantially reduced compared to cells grown in ordinary medium. By using a multi-generation adaptive laboratory evolution-based approach, we have isolated strains that show increased fitness in deuterium-based growth media. Whole-genome sequencing identified the genomic changes in the obtained strains and show that there are multiple routes to genetic adaptation to growth in deuterium-based media. By screening a collection of single-gene knockouts of nonessential genes, no specific gene was found to be essential for growth in deuterated minimal medium. Deuteration of proteins is of importance for NMR spectroscopy, neutron protein crystallography, neutron reflectometry, and small angle neutron scattering. The laboratory evolved strains, with substantially improved growth rate, were adapted for recombinant protein production by T7 RNA polymerase overexpression systems and shown to be suitable for efficient production of perdeuterated soluble and membrane proteins for structural biology applications.
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| 4. |
- Kelpšas, Vinardas, et al.
(author)
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Evolving escherichia coli host strains for efficient deuterium labeling of recombinant proteins using sodium pyruvate-d3
- 2021
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In: International Journal of Molecular Sciences. - : MDPI AG. - 1661-6596 .- 1422-0067. ; 22:18
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Labeling of proteins with deuterium (2H) is often necessary for structural biology tech-niques, such as neutron crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, and small-angle neutron scattering. Perdeuteration in which all protium (1H) atoms are replaced by deuterium is a costly process. Typ-ically, expression hosts are grown in a defined medium with heavy water as the solvent, which is supplemented with a deuterated carbon source. Escherichia coli, which is the most widely used host for recombinant protein production, can utilize several compounds as a carbon source. Glycerol-d8 is often used as a carbon source for deuterium labelling due to its lower cost compered to glucose-d7 . In order to expand available options for recombinant protein deuteration, we investigated the possibility of producing a deuterated carbon source in-house. E. coli can utilize pyruvate as a carbon source and pyruvate-d3 can be made by a relatively simple procedure. To circumvent the very poor growth of E. coli in minimal media with pyruvate as sole carbon source, adaptive laboratory evolution for strain improvement was applied. E. coli strains with enhanced growth in minimal pyruvate medium was subjected to whole genome sequencing and the genetic changes were revealed. One of the evolved strains was adapted for the widely used T7 RNA polymerase overexpression systems. Using the improved strain E. coli DAP1(DE3) and in-house produced deuterated carbon source (pyru-vic acid-d4 and sodium pyruvate-d3 ), we produce deuterated (>90%) triose-phosphate isomerase, at quantities sufficient enough for large volume crystal production and subsequent analysis by neutron crystallography.
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| 5. |
- Kelpšas, Vinardas, et al.
(author)
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Neutron structures of Leishmania mexicana triosephosphate isomerase in complex with reaction-intermediate mimics shed light on the proton-shuttling steps
- 2021
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In: IUCrJ. - 2052-2525. ; 8:Pt 4, s. 633-643
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Triosephosphate isomerase (TIM) is a key enzyme in glycolysis that catalyses the interconversion of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate and dihydroxy-acetone phosphate. This simple reaction involves the shuttling of protons mediated by protolysable side chains. The catalytic power of TIM is thought to stem from its ability to facilitate the deprotonation of a carbon next to a carbonyl group to generate an enediolate intermediate. The enediolate intermediate is believed to be mimicked by the inhibitor 2-phosphoglycolate (PGA) and the subsequent enediol intermediate by phosphoglycolohydroxamate (PGH). Here, neutron structures of Leishmania mexicana TIM have been determined with both inhibitors, and joint neutron/X-ray refinement followed by quantum refinement has been performed. The structures show that in the PGA complex the postulated general base Glu167 is protonated, while in the PGH complex it remains deprotonated. The deuteron is clearly localized on Glu167 in the PGA-TIM structure, suggesting an asymmetric hydrogen bond instead of a low-barrier hydrogen bond. The full picture of the active-site protonation states allowed an investigation of the reaction mechanism using density-functional theory calculations.
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| 6. |
- Matavacas, Judith, et al.
(author)
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Bacillus subtilis forms twisted cells with cell wall integrity defects upon removal of the molecular chaperones DnaK and trigger factor
- 2023
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In: Frontiers in Microbiology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-302X. ; 13
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The protein homeostasis network ensures a proper balance between synthesis, folding, and degradation of all cellular proteins. DnaK and trigger factor (TF) are ubiquitous bacterial molecular chaperones that assist in protein folding, as well as preventing protein misfolding and aggregation. In Escherichia coli, DnaK and TF possess partially overlapping functions. Their combined depletion results in proteostasis collapse and is synthetically lethal at temperatures above 30°C. To increase our understanding on how proteostasis is maintained in Gram-positive bacteria, we have investigated the physiological effects of deleting dnaK and tig (encoding for DnaK and TF) in Bacillus subtilis. We show that combined deletion of dnaK and tig in B. subtilis is non-lethal, but causes a severe pleiotropic phenotype, including an aberrant twisted and filamentous cell morphology, as well as decreased tolerance to heat and to cell wall active antibiotics and hydrolytic enzymes, indicative of defects in cell wall integrity. In addition, cells lacking DnaK and TF have a much smaller colony size due to defects in motility. Despite these physiological changes, we observed no major compromises in important cellular processes such as cell growth, FtsZ localization and division and only moderate defects in spore formation. Finally, through suppressor analyses, we found that the wild-type cell shape can be partially restored by mutations in genes involved in metabolism or in other diverse cellular processes.
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| 7. |
- Matavacas, Judith, et al.
(author)
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New insights into the disulfide stress response by the Bacillus subtilis Spx system at a single-cell level
- 2023
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In: Molecular Microbiology. - 0950-382X. ; 120:1, s. 75-90
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Spx is a global transcriptional regulator that orchestrates the Bacillus subtilis response to disulfide stress. The YjbH (SpxH) protein adapts Spx for ClpXP-mediated degradation, playing a critical role in the regulation of the cellular Spx levels. Upon stress, YjbH forms aggregates by a yet unknown mechanism, resulting in increased Spx levels due to reduced proteolysis. Here, we studied how individual cells use the Spx-YjbH system to respond to disulfide stress. We show, using fluorescent reporters, a correlation between the Spx levels and the amount of YjbH, as well as a transient growth inhibition upon disulfide stress. The in vivo dynamics and inheritance of YjbH aggregates are characterized by a bipolar distribution over time and appear to be entropy-driven by nucleoid exclusion. Moreover, we reveal that the population following disulfide stress is highly heterogenous in terms of aggregate load and that the aggregate load has strong implications for cellular fitness. We propose that the observed heterogeneity could be a mechanism to ensure population survival during stress. Finally, we find that the two YjbH domains (DsbA-like domain and winged-helix domain) contribute to its aggregation function, and show that the aggregation of the DsbA-like domain is conserved among other studied orthologs, whereas important differences are observed for the winged-helix domain.
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| 8. |
- Matavacas, Judith, et al.
(author)
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Update on the Protein Homeostasis Network in Bacillus subtilis
- 2022
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In: Frontiers in Microbiology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-302X. ; 13
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Protein homeostasis is fundamental to cell function and survival. It relies on an interconnected network of processes involving protein synthesis, folding, post-translational modification and degradation as well as regulators of these processes. Here we provide an update on the roles, regulation and subcellular localization of the protein homeostasis machinery in the Gram-positive model organism Bacillus subtilis. We discuss emerging ideas and current research gaps in the field that, if tackled, increase our understanding of how Gram-positive bacteria, including several human pathogens, maintain protein homeostasis and cope with stressful conditions that challenge their survival.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Sprenger, Janina, et al.
(author)
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Crystal structures of Val58Ile tryptophan repressor in a domain-swapped array in the presence and absence of l-tryptophan Sprenger Janina
- 2021
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In: Acta Crystallographica Section F: Structural Biology Communications. - 2053-230X. ; 77, s. 215-225
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The crystal structures of domain-swapped tryptophan repressor (TrpR) variant Val58Ile before and after soaking with the physiological ligand l-tryptophan (l-Trp) indicate that l-Trp occupies the same location in the domain-swapped form as in native dimeric TrpR and makes equivalent residue contacts. This result is unexpected because the ligand binding-site residues arise from three separate polypeptide chains in the domain-swapped form. This work represents the first published structure of a domain-swapped form of TrpR with l-Trp bound. The presented structures also show that the protein amino-terminus, whether or not it bears a disordered extension of about 20 residues, is accessible in the large solvent channels of the domain-swapped crystal form, as in the structures reported previously in this form for TrpR without N-terminal extensions. These findings inspire the exploration of l-Trp analogs and N-terminal modifications as labels to orient guest proteins that cannot otherwise be crystallized in the solvent channels of crystalline domain-swapped TrpR hosts for potential diffraction analysis.
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