Intersubunit complementation of sugar signal transduction in VirA heterodimers and posttranslational regulation of VirA activity in Agrobacterium tumefaciens

The VirA/VirG two-component regulatory system of Agrobacterium tumefaciens regulates expression of the virulence (vir) genes that control the infection process leading to crown gall tumor disease on susceptible plants. VirA, a membrane-bound homodimer, initiates vir gene induction by communicating the presence of molecular signals found at the site of a plant wound through phosphorylation of VirG. Inducing signals include phenols, monosaccharides, and acidic pH. While sugars are not essential for gene induction, their presence greatly increases vir gene expression when levels of the essential phenolic signal are low. Reception of the sugar signal depends on a direct interaction between ChvE, a sugar-binding protein, and VirA. Here we show that the sugar signal received in the periplasmic region of one subunit within a VirA heterodimer can enhance the kinase function of the second subunit. However, sugar enhancement of vir gene expression was vector dependent. virA alleles expressed from pSa-derived vectors inhibited signal transduction by endogenous VirA. Inhibition was conditional, depending on the induction medium and the virA allele tested. Moreover, constitutive expression of virG overcame the inhibitory effect of some but not all virA alleles, suggesting that there may be more than one inhibitory mechanism.     

Phosphorylation of the VirG protein of Agrobacterium tumefaciens by the autophosphorylated VirA protein: essential role in biological activity of VirG.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens virulence genes are induced by plant signals through the VirA-VirG two-component regulatory system. The VirA protein is a membrane-spanning sensor molecule that possesses an autophosphorylating activity, and the VirG protein is a sequence-specific DNA-binding protein. In this report, we demonstrate that the VirG protein is phosphorylated by the VirA protein and that the phosphate is directly transferred from the phosphorylated VirA molecule (phosphohistidine) to the VirG protein. The chemical stability of the phospho-VirG bond suggested that the VirG protein was phosphorylated at the aspartate and/or glutamate residue. The phosphorylated VirG protein was reduced with tritiated sodium borohydride and subjected to proteolytic digestion with the Achromobacter protease I enzyme. The resulting peptide fragments were separated by C8 reversed-phase high-pressure liquid chromatography, and the tritium-labeled peptide was sequenced. Amino acid sequence data showed that the aspartate residue at position 52 was the only site phosphorylated. Changing this aspartate into asparagine resulted in a nonphosphorylatable and biologically nonfunctional gene product. As a control, a randomly chosen aspartate was changed into an asparagine (position 72), and no effect on its phosphorylation or biological activity was observed. Unlike its homologs, including CheA-CheY, EnvZ-OmpR, and NtrB-NtrC, the phospho-VirG molecule was very stable in vitro. The possible implications of these observations and the function of VirG phosphorylation in vir gene activation are discussed.     

The sensing of plant signal molecules by Agrobacterium: genetic evidence for direct recognition of phenolic inducers by the VirA protein

The virulence (vir) genes of Agrobacterium tumefaciens are induced by low-molecular-weight phenolic compounds and monosaccharides through a two-component regulatory system consisting of the VirA and VirG proteins. Although it is clear that the monosaccharides require binding to a periplasmic binding protein before they can interact with the sensor VirA protein, it is not certain whether the phenolic compounds also interact with a binding protein or directly interact with the sensor protein. To shed light on this question, we tested the vir-inducing abilities of several different phenolic compounds using two wild-type strains of A. tumefaciens, KU12 and A6. We found that several compounds such as 4-hydroxyacetophone and p-coumaric acid induced the vir of KU12, but not A6. On the other hand, acetosyringone and several other phenolic compounds induced the vir of A6, but not KU12. By transferring different Ti plasmids into isogenic chromosomal backgrounds, we showed that the phenolic sensing determinant is associated with the Ti plasmid. Subcloning of the Ti plasmid indicated that the virA locus determines which phenolic compounds can function as vir inducers. These results suggest that VirA directly senses the phenolic compounds for vir activation.     

Dual control of Agrobacterium tumefaciens Ti plasmid virulence genes.

The virulence genes of nopaline (pTiC58) and octopine (pTiA6NC) Ti plasmids are similarly affected by the Agrobacterium tumefaciens ros mutation. Of six vir region complementation groups (virA, virB, virG, virC, virD, and virE) examined by using fusions to reporter genes, the promoters of only two (virC and virD) responded to the ros mutation. For each promoter that was affected by ros, the level of expression of its associated genes was substantially elevated in the mutant. This increase was not influenced by Ti plasmid-encoded factors, and the mutation did not interfere with the induction of pTiC58 vir genes by phenolic compounds via the VirA/VirG regulatory control mechanism. The effects of the ros mutation and acetosyringone were cumulative for all vir promoters examined. The pleiotropic characteristics of the ros mutant include the complete absence of the major acidic capsular polysaccharide.     

Reconstitution of acetosyringone-mediated Agrobacterium tumefaciens virulence gene expression in the heterologous host Escherichia coli

The ability to utilize Escherichia coli as a heterologous system in which to study the regulation of Agrobacterium tumefaciens virulence genes and the mechanism of transfer DNA (T-DNA) transfer would provide an important tool to our understanding and manipulation of these processes. We have previously reported that the rpoA gene encoding the alpha subunit of RNA polymerase is required for the expression of lacZ gene under the control of virB promoter (virBp::lacZ) in E. coli containing a constitutively active virG gene [virG(Con)]. Here we show that an RpoA hybrid containing the N-terminal 247 residues from E. coli and the C-terminal 89 residues from A. tumefaciens was able to significantly express virBp::lacZ in E. coli in a VirG(Con)-dependent manner. Utilization of lac promoter-driven virA and virG in combination with the A. tumefaciens rpoA construct resulted in significant inducer-mediated expression of the virBp::lacZ fusion, and the level of virBp::lacZ expression was positively correlated to the copy number of the rpoA construct. This expression was dependent on VirA, VirG, temperature, and, to a lesser extent, pH, which is similar to what is observed in A. tumefaciens. Furthermore, the effect of sugars on vir gene expression was observed only in the presence of the chvE gene, suggesting that the glucose-binding protein of E. coli, a homologue of ChvE, does not interact with the VirA molecule. We also evaluated other phenolic compounds in induction assays and observed significant expression with syringealdehyde, a low level of expression with acetovanillone, and no expression with hydroxyacetophenone, similar to what occurs in A. tumefaciens strain A348 from which the virA clone was derived. These data support the notion that VirA directly senses the phenolic inducer. However, the overall level of expression of the vir genes in E. coli is less than what is observed in A. tumefaciens, suggesting that additional gene(s) from A. tumefaciens may be required for the full expression of virulence genes in E. coli.     

The regulatory VirA protein of Agrobacterium tumefaciens does not function at elevated temperatures.

Previous studies have shown that Agrobacterium tumefaciens causes tumors on plants only at temperatures below 32 degrees C, and virulence gene expression is specifically inhibited at temperatures above 32 degrees C. We show here that this effect persists even when the virA and virG loci are expressed under the control of a lac promoter whose activity is temperature independent. This finding suggests that one or more steps in the signal transduction process mediated by the VirA and VirG proteins are temperature sensitive. Both the autophosphorylation of VirA and the subsequent transfer of phosphate to VirG are shown to be sensitive to high temperatures (> 32 degrees C), and this correlates with the reduced vir gene expression observed at these temperatures. At temperatures of 32 degrees C and higher, the VirA molecule undergoes a reversible inactivation while the VirG molecule is not affected. vir gene induction is temperature sensitive in an acetosyringone-independent virA mutant background but not in a virG constitutive mutant which is virA and acetosyringone independent. These observations all support the notion that the VirA protein is responsible for the thermosensitivity of vir gene expression. However, an Agrobacterium strain containing a constitutive virG locus still cannot cause tumors on Kalanchoe plants at 32 degrees C. This strain induces normal-size tumors at temperatures up to 30 degrees C, whereas the wild-type Agrobacterium strain produces almost no tumors at 30 degrees C. These results suggest that at temperatures above 32 degrees C, the plant becomes more resistant to infection by A. tumefaciens and/or functions of some other vir gene products are lost in spite of their normal levels of expression.     

Effects on growth by changes of the balance between GreA, GreB, and DksA suggest mutual competition and functional redundancy in Escherichia coli

It is well known that ppGpp and DksA interact with bacterial RNA polymerase (RNAP) to alter promoter activity. This study suggests that GreA plays a major role and GreB plays a minor role in the ppGpp-DksA regulatory network. We present evidence that DksA and GreA/GreB are redundant and/or share similar functions: (i) on minimal medium GreA overproduction suppresses the growth defects of a dksA mutant; (ii) GreA and DksA overexpression partially suppresses the auxotrophy of a ppGpp-deficient strain; (iii) microarrays show that many genes are regulated similarly by GreA and DksA. We also find instances where GreA and DksA seem to act in opposition: (i) complete suppression of auxotrophy occurs by overexpression of GreA or DksA only in the absence of the other protein; (ii) PgadA and PgadE promoter fusions, along with many other genes, are dramatically affected in vivo by GreA overproduction only when DksA is absent; (iii) GreA and DksA show opposite regulation of a subset of genes. Mutations in key acidic residues of GreA and DksA suggest that properties seen here probably are not explained by known biochemical activities of these proteins. Our results indicate that the general pattern of gene expression and, in turn, the ability of Escherichia coli to grow under a defined condition are the result of a complex interplay between GreA, GreB, and DksA that also involves mutual control of their gene expression, competition for RNA polymerase binding, and similar or opposite action on RNA polymerase activity.