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Regulation of the multi-functional protein YscU in assembly of the Yersinia type III secretion injectisome
Umeå University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Chemistry. (Magnus Wolf-Watz)
2017 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)Alternative title
Reglering av det multifunktionella proteinet YscU i sammansättningen av Yersinias typ III-sekretionssystem (Swedish)
Abstract [en]

Yersinia pseudotuberculosis is a Gram-negative zoonotic pathogenic bacterium causing gastroenteritis in human and animals. It shares a conserved virulence plasmid encoding for a needle-like secretion machinery, or type III secretion system, which can be found in other pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria. The type III secretion system (T3SS) is a macromolecular assembly that enables pathogenic effector proteins (or Yersinia outer proteins, Yops) to be transported into eukaryotic host cells. This export machinery is assembled in a highly ordered stepwise mechanism. The activation of T3SS is also dependent on calcium concentration, temperature, and pH of the growth media as mimic factors for host cell’s contact. The T3SS-associated inner-membrane protein, YscU, of Yersinia is proposed to function as a substrate specificity switch protein and forms basal structure of T3SS. YscU has four α helical transmembrane domain and a soluble cytoplasmic domain YscUC which undergoes auto-proteolysis at a conserved N↑PTH motif. The auto-proteolysis process, which is required for the assembly of the injectisome and secretion of Yops, results in a 10-kDa C-terminal polypeptide fragment, denoted YscUCC and 6-kDa N-terminal fragment YscUCN. In this thesis, we showed that YscUC dissociation was important for Yops secretion and resulted in unfolded YscUCN and oligomeric YscUCC. By combination in vivo and in vitro methods, growth media conditions as calcium, temperature, and pH were indicated to control secretion by regulation of YscUC dissociation. The calcium-binding isotherm to YscUC was fit best with a one-site binding model resulting in Kd 800 µM, which is identical to calcium level that blocks secretion in vivo. YscU is also the key protein for the T3SS pH dependence, demonstrated by thermal unfolding profile and secondary structure of protein were altered between pH 7.4 and 6.0. In addition, bacterial inner membrane was proposed to assist the YscUCN folding, monitored by using lipid bilayer as a mimic environment in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. This binding is important for Yops secretion and YscUC is anchored to bacterial membrane upon dissociation. The other substrate specificity switch protein YscP has function as a “molecular ruler” controlling length of the secretion needle. Previous genetic experiments have suggested that YscP and YscU interact physically, when mutation at defined residues on yscU (suppressor mutants) rescued Yops secretion in null-yscP mutant. In this research, direct binding of YscU and YscP was proved as weak but important interaction with Kd 430 mM by application of NMR and the binding interface of YscP was centred on the last helix of YscUC. Furthermore, we found that the YscP interaction could inhibit YscU auto-proteolysis. Studying the dissociation kinetic of suppressor YscUC variants at temperature 30 and 37oC provides strong support to a model where YscU is a temperature sensor for T3SS and YscUC dissociation is required for Yops secretion. Interestingly, the NPTH motif is conserved through most of YscU family members, meaning that role of dissociation may be conserved also in other bacterial injectisomes. To this end, the dissociation of YscU can be used as a therapeutic target in drug discovery. We attempted to identify the small-molecules that can hinder YscU dissociation. The small compound methyl(5-methyl-2-phenyl-1,3-thiazolidin-4-yl)acetate was found to be able to inhibit dissociation and to crystalize full YscUC, which has never been successfully done before. Finally, we found that the inner-rod protein YscI is binding to YscUC with a 1:1 stoichiometry as shown with pull-down assays and isothermal titration calorimetry. Taken together we have made several discoveries that expand the functional palette of YscU and all these functions were shown to have biological relevance with Yops secretion levels. In light of the strong sequence conservation between T3SS utilizing pathogenic bacteria the findings are likely to be general characters.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Umeå: Umeå University , 2017. , p. 64
Keywords [en]
Type III secretion system (T3SS), injectisome, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, inhibitors, Yops, YscU, YscP, YscI, disorder-to-order transition, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), circular dichroism (CD), isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC)
National Category
Chemical Sciences
Research subject
biological chemistry
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-130134ISBN: 978-91-7601-613-8 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-130134DiVA, id: diva2:1064298
Public defence
2017-02-10, KB3B1, Stora Hörsalen, KBC huset, Umeå, 10:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2017-01-20 Created: 2017-01-12 Last updated: 2018-06-09Bibliographically approved
List of papers
1. Autoproteolysis and Intramolecular Dissociation of Yersinia YscU Precedes Secretion of Its C-Terminal Polypeptide YscU CC
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Autoproteolysis and Intramolecular Dissociation of Yersinia YscU Precedes Secretion of Its C-Terminal Polypeptide YscU CC
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2012 (English)In: PLOS ONE, E-ISSN 1932-6203, Vol. 7, no 11, article id e49349Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Type III secretion system mediated secretion and translocation of Yop-effector proteins across the eukaryotic target cell membrane by pathogenic Yersinia is highly organized and is dependent on a switching event from secretion of early structural substrates to late effector substrates (Yops). Substrate switching can be mimicked in vitro by modulating the calcium levels in the growth medium. YscU that is essential for regulation of this switch undergoes autoproteolysis at a conserved N↑PTH motif, resulting in a 10 kDa C-terminal polypeptide fragment denoted YscUCC. Here we show that depletion of calcium induces intramolecular dissociation of YscUCC from YscU followed by secretion of the YscUCC polypeptide. Thus, YscUCC behaved in vivo as a Yop protein with respect to secretion properties. Further, destabilized yscU mutants displayed increased rates of dissociation of YscUCC in vitro resulting in enhanced Yop secretion in vivo at 30°C relative to the wild-type strain.These findings provide strong support to the relevance of YscUCC dissociation for Yop secretion. We propose that YscUCC orchestrates a block in the secretion channel that is eliminated by calcium depletion. Further, the striking homology between different members of the YscU/FlhB family suggests that this protein family possess regulatory functions also in other bacteria using comparable mechanisms.

National Category
Chemical Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-61703 (URN)10.1371/journal.pone.0049349 (DOI)000311821000040 ()23185318 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-84869809433 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2012-11-23 Created: 2012-11-23 Last updated: 2023-03-23Bibliographically approved
2. Negatively charged lipid membranes promote a disorder-order transition in the Yersinia YscU protein
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Negatively charged lipid membranes promote a disorder-order transition in the Yersinia YscU protein
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2014 (English)In: Biophysical Journal, ISSN 0006-3495, E-ISSN 1542-0086, Vol. 107, no 8, p. 1950-1961Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The inner membrane of Gram-negative bacteria is negatively charged, rendering positively charged cytoplasmic proteins in close proximity likely candidates for protein-membrane interactions. YscU is a Yersinia pseudotuberculosis type III secretion system protein crucial for bacterial pathogenesis. The protein contains a highly conserved positively charged linker sequence that separates membrane-spanning and cytoplasmic (YscUC) domains. Although disordered in solution, inspection of the primary sequence of the linker reveals that positively charged residues are separated with a typical helical periodicity. Here, we demonstrate that the linker sequence of YscU undergoes a largely electrostatically driven coil-to-helix transition upon binding to negatively charged membrane interfaces. Using membrane-mimicking sodium dodecyl sulfate micelles, an NMR derived structural model reveals the induction of three helical segments in the linker. The overall linker placement in sodium dodecyl sulfate micelles was identified by NMR experiments including paramagnetic relaxation enhancements. Partitioning of individual residues agrees with their hydrophobicity and supports an interfacial positioning of the helices. Replacement of positively charged linker residues with alanine resulted in YscUC variants displaying attenuated membrane-binding affinities, suggesting that the membrane interaction depends on positive charges within the linker. In vivo experiments with bacteria expressing these YscU replacements resulted in phenotypes displaying significantly reduced effector protein secretion levels. Taken together, our data identify a previously unknown membrane-interacting surface of YscUC that, when perturbed by mutations, disrupts the function of the pathogenic machinery in Yersinia.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Cell Press, 2014
National Category
Biophysics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-95192 (URN)10.1016/j.bpj.2014.09.005 (DOI)000343682700021 ()25418176 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-84908240911 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2014-10-23 Created: 2014-10-23 Last updated: 2023-03-24Bibliographically approved
3. Characterization of the Ruler Protein Interaction Interface on the Substrate Specificity SwitchProtein in the Yersinia Type III Secretion System
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Characterization of the Ruler Protein Interaction Interface on the Substrate Specificity SwitchProtein in the Yersinia Type III Secretion System
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2017 (English)In: Journal of Biological Chemistry, ISSN 0021-9258, E-ISSN 1083-351X, Vol. 292, no 8, p. 3299-3311Article, review/survey (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Many pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria use the type III secretion system (T3SS) to deliver effector proteins into eukaryotic host cells. In Yersinia the switch to secretion of effector proteins is induced first after that intimate contact between the bacterium and its eukaryotic targetcell has been established and the T3SS proteins YscP and YscU are playing a central role in thisprocess. Here we identify the molecular details of the YscP binding site on YscU by means o fnuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The binding interface is centeredon the C-terminal domain of YscU. Disruptingthe YscU/YscP interaction by introducing point mutations at the interaction interface significantly reduced the secretion of effector proteins and HeLa cell cytotoxicity. Interestingly, the bindingof YscP to the slowly self-cleaving YscU variantP264A conferred significant protection againstauto-proteolysis. The YscP mediated inhibition of YscU auto-proteolysis suggest that the cleavage event may act as a timing switch in the regulationof early vs. late T3SS substrates. We also show that YscUC binds to the inner-rod protein YscI with a Kd of 3.8 μM and with one-to-one stoichiometry. The significant similarity between different members of the YscU, YscP, YscI families suggests that the protein-protein interactions discussed in this study are alsorelevant for other T3SS-containing Gram-negative bacteria.

National Category
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Research subject
Biochemistry
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-130048 (URN)10.1074/jbc.M116.770255 (DOI)000395538800021 ()2-s2.0-85013801536 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2017-01-11 Created: 2017-01-11 Last updated: 2023-03-24Bibliographically approved
4. Targeting dissociation of the substrate specificity switch protein YscU in the Yersinia type III secretion system with small molecules
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Targeting dissociation of the substrate specificity switch protein YscU in the Yersinia type III secretion system with small molecules
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(English)Manuscript (preprint) (Other academic)
National Category
Chemical Sciences
Research subject
Biochemistry
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-130045 (URN)
Available from: 2017-01-11 Created: 2017-01-11 Last updated: 2018-06-09

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