F-Actin Dynamics in Neurospora crassa

This study demonstrates the utility of Lifeact for the investigation of actin dynamics in Neurospora crassa and also represents the first report of simultaneous live-cell imaging of the actin and microtubule cytoskeletons in filamentous fungi. Lifeact is a 17-amino-acid peptide derived from the nonessential Saccharomyces cerevisiae actin-binding protein Abp140p. Fused to green fluorescent protein (GFP) or red fluorescent protein (TagRFP), Lifeact allowed live-cell imaging of actin patches, cables, and rings in N. crassa without interfering with cellular functions. Actin cables and patches localized to sites of active growth during the establishment and maintenance of cell polarity in germ tubes and conidial anastomosis tubes (CATs). Recurrent phases of formation and retrograde movement of complex arrays of actin cables were observed at growing tips of germ tubes and CATs. Two populations of actin patches exhibiting slow and fast movement were distinguished, and rapid (1.2 μm/s) saltatory transport of patches along cables was observed. Actin cables accumulated and subsequently condensed into actin rings associated with septum formation. F-actin organization was markedly different in the tip regions of mature hyphae and in germ tubes. Only mature hyphae displayed a subapical collar of actin patches and a concentration of F-actin within the core of the Spitzenkörper. Coexpression of Lifeact-TagRFP and β-tubulin–GFP revealed distinct but interrelated localization patterns of F-actin and microtubules during the initiation and maintenance of tip growth.Actins are highly conserved proteins found in all eukaryotes and have an enormous variety of cellular roles. The monomeric form (globular actin, or G-actin) can self-assemble, with the aid of numerous actin-binding proteins (ABPs), into microfilaments (filamentous actin, or F-actin), which, together with microtubules, form the two major components of the fungal cytoskeleton. Numerous pharmacological and genetic studies of fungi have demonstrated crucial roles for F-actin in cell polarity, exocytosis, endocytosis, cytokinesis, and organelle movement (6, 7, 20, 34, 35, 51, 52, 59). Phalloidin staining, immunofluorescent labeling, and fluorescent-protein (FP)-based live-cell imaging have revealed three distinct subpopulations of F-actin-containing structures in fungi: patches, cables, and rings (1, 14, 28, 34, 60, 63, 64). Actin patches are associated with the plasma membrane and represent an accumulation of F-actin around endocytic vesicles (3, 26, 57). Actin cables are bundles of actin filaments stabilized with cross-linking proteins, such as tropomyosins and fimbrin, and are assembled by formins at sites of active growth, where they form tracks for myosin V-dependent polarized secretion and organelle transport (10, 16, 17, 27, 38, 47, 48). Cables, unlike patches, are absolutely required for polarized growth in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (34, 38). Contractile actomyosin rings are essential for cytokinesis in budding yeast, whereas in filamentous fungi, actin rings are less well studied but are known to be involved in septum formation (20, 28, 34, 39, 40).Actin cables and patches have been particularly well studied in budding yeast. However, there are likely to be important differences between F-actin architecture and dynamics in budding yeast and those in filamentous fungi, as budding yeasts display only a short period of polarized growth during bud formation, which is followed by isotropic growth over the bud surface (10). Sustained polarized growth during hyphal morphogenesis is a defining feature of filamentous fungi (21), making them attractive models for studying the roles of the actin cytoskeleton in cell polarization, tip growth, and organelle transport.In Neurospora crassa and other filamentous fungi, disruption of the actin cytoskeleton leads to rapid tip swelling, which indicates perturbation of polarized tip growth, demonstrating a critical role for F-actin in targeted secretion to particular sites on the plasma membrane (7, 22, 29, 56). Immunofluorescence studies of N. crassa have shown that F-actin localizes to hyphal tips as “clouds” and “plaques” (7, 54, 59). However, immunolabeling has failed to reveal actin cables in N. crassa and offers limited insights into F-actin dynamics. Live-cell imaging of F-actin architecture and dynamics has not been accomplished in N. crassa, yet it is expected to yield key insights into cell polarization, tip growth, and intracellular transport.We took advantage of a recently developed live-cell imaging probe for F-actin called Lifeact (43). Lifeact is a 17-amino-acid peptide derived from the N terminus of the budding yeast actin-binding protein Abp140 (5, 63) and has recently been demonstrated to be a universal live-cell imaging marker for F-actin in eukaryotes (43). Here, we report the successful application of fluorescent Lifeact fusion constructs for live-cell imaging of F-actin in N. crassa. We constructed two synthetic genes consisting of Lifeact fused to “synthetic” green fluorescent protein (sGFP) (S65T) (henceforth termed GFP) (12) or red fluorescent protein (TagRFP) (33) and expressed these constructs in various N. crassa strains. In all strain backgrounds, fluorescent Lifeact constructs clearly labeled actin patches, cables, and rings and revealed a direct association of F-actin structures with sites of cell polarization and active tip growth. Our results demonstrate the efficacy of Lifeact as a nontoxic live-cell imaging probe in N. crassa.     

Diversity Within the O-linked Protein Glycosylation Systems of Acinetobacter Species

The opportunistic human pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii is a concern to health care systems worldwide because of its persistence in clinical settings and the growing frequency of multiple drug resistant infections. To combat this threat, it is necessary to understand factors associated with disease and environmental persistence of A. baumannii. Recently, it was shown that a single biosynthetic pathway was responsible for the generation of capsule polysaccharide and O-linked protein glycosylation. Because of the requirement of these carbohydrates for virulence and the non-template driven nature of glycan biogenesis we investigated the composition, diversity, and properties of the Acinetobacter glycoproteome. Utilizing global and targeted mass spectrometry methods, we examined 15 strains and found extensive glycan diversity in the O-linked glycoproteome of Acinetobacter. Comparison of the 26 glycoproteins identified revealed that different A. baumannii strains target similar protein substrates, both in characteristics of the sites of O-glycosylation and protein identity. Surprisingly, glycan micro-heterogeneity was also observed within nearly all isolates examined demonstrating glycan heterogeneity is a widespread phenomena in Acinetobacter O-linked glycosylation. By comparing the 11 main glycoforms and over 20 alternative glycoforms characterized within the 15 strains, trends within the glycan utilized for O-linked glycosylation could be observed. These trends reveal Acinetobacter O-linked glycosylation favors short (three to five residue) glycans with limited branching containing negatively charged sugars such as GlcNAc3NAcA4OAc or legionaminic/pseudaminic acid derivatives. These observations suggest that although highly diverse, the capsule/O-linked glycan biosynthetic pathways generate glycans with similar characteristics across all A. baumannii.Acinetobacter baumannii is an emerging opportunistic pathogen of increasing significance to health care institutions worldwide (1–3). The growing number of identified multiple drug resistant (MDR)¹ strains (2–4), the ability of isolates to rapidly acquire resistance (3, 4), and the propensity of this agent to survive harsh environmental conditions (5) account for the increasing number of outbreaks in intensive care, burn, or high dependence health care units since the 1970s (2–5). The burden on the global health care system of MDR A. baumannii is further exacerbated by standard infection control measures often being insufficient to quell the spread of A. baumannii to high risk individuals and generally failing to remove A. baumannii from health care institutions (5). Because of these concerns, there is an urgent need to identify strategies to control A. baumannii as well as understand the mechanisms that enable its persistence in health care environments.Surface glycans have been identified as key virulence factors related to persistence and virulence within the clinical setting (6–8). Acinetobacter surface carbohydrates were first identified and studied in A. venetianus strain RAG-1, leading to the identification of a gene locus required for synthesis and export of the surface carbohydrates (9, 10). These carbohydrate synthesis loci are variable yet ubiquitous in A. baumannii (11, 12). Comparison of 12 known capsule structures from A. baumannii with the sequences of their carbohydrate synthesis loci has provided strong evidence that these loci are responsible for capsule synthesis with as many as 77 distinct serotypes identified by molecular serotyping (11). Because of the non-template driven nature of glycan synthesis, the identification and characterization of the glycans themselves are required to confirm the true diversity. This diversity has widespread implications for Acinetobacter biology as the resulting carbohydrate structures are not solely used for capsule biosynthesis but can be incorporated and utilized by other ubiquitous systems, such as O-linked protein glycosylation (13, 14).Although originally thought to be restricted to species such as Campylobacter jejuni (15, 16) and Neisseria meningitidis (17), bacterial protein glycosylation is now recognized as a common phenomenon within numerous pathogens and commensal bacteria (18, 19). Unlike eukaryotic glycosylation where robust and high-throughput technologies now exist to enrich (20–22) and characterize both the glycan and peptide component of glycopeptides (23–25), the diversity (glycan composition and linkage) within bacterial glycosylation systems makes few technologies broadly applicable to all bacterial glycoproteins. Because of this challenge a deeper understanding of the glycan diversity and substrates of glycosylation has been largely unachievable for the majority of known bacterial glycosylation systems. The recent implementation of selective glycopeptide enrichment methods (26, 27) and the use of multiple fragmentation approaches (28, 29) has facilitated identification of an increasing number of glycosylation substrates independent of prior knowledge of the glycan structure (30–33). These developments have facilitated the undertaking of comparative glycosylation studies, revealing glycosylation is widespread in diverse genera and far more diverse then initially thought. For example, Nothaft et al. were able to show N-linked glycosylation was widespread in the Campylobacter genus and that two broad groupings of the N-glycans existed (34).During the initial characterization of A. baumannii O-linked glycosylation the use of selective enrichment of glycopeptides followed by mass spectrometry analysis with multiple fragmentation technologies was found to be an effective means to identify multiple glycosylated substrates in the strain ATCC 17978 (14). Interestingly in this strain, the glycan utilized for protein modification was identical to a single subunit of the capsule (13) and the loss of either protein glycosylation or glycan synthesis lead to decreases in biofilm formation and virulence (13, 14). Because of the diversity in the capsule carbohydrate synthesis loci and the ubiquitous distribution of the PglL O-oligosaccharyltransferase required for protein glycosylation, we hypothesized that the glycan variability might be also extended to O-linked glycosylation. This diversity, although common in surface carbohydrates such as the lipopolysaccharide of numerous Gram-negative pathogens (35), has only recently been observed within bacterial proteins glycosylation system that are typically conserved within species (36) and loosely across genus (34, 37).In this study, we explored the diversity within the O-linked protein glycosylation systems of Acinetobacter species. Our analysis complements the recent in silico studies of A. baumannii showing extensive glycan diversity exists in the carbohydrate synthesis loci (11, 12). Employing global strategies for the analysis of glycosylation, we experimentally demonstrate that the variation in O-glycan structure extends beyond the genetic diversity predicted by the carbohydrate loci alone and targets proteins of similar properties and identity. Using this knowledge, we developed a targeted approach for the detection of protein glycosylation, enabling streamlined analysis of glycosylation within a range of genetic backgrounds. We determined that; O-linked glycosylation is widespread in clinically relevant Acinetobacter species; inter- and intra-strain heterogeneity exist within glycan structures; glycan diversity, although extensive results in the generation of glycans with similar properties and that the utilization of a single glycan for capsule and O-linked glycosylation is a general feature of A. baumannii but may not be a general characteristic of all Acinetobacter species such as A. baylyi.     

The Boron Requirement and Cell Wall Properties of Growing and Stationary Suspension-Cultured Chenopodium album L. Cells

Suspension-cultured Chenopodium album L. cells are capable of continuous, long-term growth on a boron-deficient medium. Compared with cultures grown with boron, these cultures contained more enlarged and detached cells, had increased turbidity due to the rupture of a small number of cells, and contained cells with an increased cell wall pore size. These characteristics were reversed by the addition of boric acid (≥7 μm) to the boron-deficient cells. C. album cells grown in the presence of 100 μm boric acid entered the stationary phase when they were not subcultured, and remained viable for at least 3 weeks. The transition from the growth phase to the stationary phase was accompanied by a decrease in the wall pore size. Cells grown without boric acid or with 7 μm boric acid were not able to reduce their wall pore size at the transition to the stationary phase. These cells could not be kept viable in the stationary phase, because they continued to expand and died as a result of wall rupture. The addition of 100 μm boric acid prevented wall rupture and the wall pore size was reduced to normal values. We conclude that boron is required to maintain the normal pore structure of the wall matrix and to mechanically stabilize the wall at growth termination.The ultrastructure and physical properties of plant cell walls are known to be affected by boron deficiency (Kouchi and Kumazawa, 1976; Hirsch and Torrey, 1980; Fischer and Hecht-Buchholz, 1985; Matoh et al., 1992; Hu and Brown, 1994; Findeklee and Goldbach, 1996). Moreover, boron is predominantly localized in the cell wall when plants are grown with suboptimal boron (Loomis and Durst, 1991; Matoh et al., 1992; Hu and Brown, 1994; Hu et al., 1996). In radish, >80% of the cell wall boron is present in the pectic polysaccharide RG-II (Matoh et al., 1993; Kobayashi et al., 1996), which is now known to exist as a dimer that is cross-linked by a borate ester between two apiosyl residues (Kobayashi et al., 1996; O''Neill et al., 1996). Dimeric RG-II is unusually stable at low pH and is present in a large number of plant species (Ishii and Matsunaga, 1996; Kobayashi et al., 1996, 1997; Matoh et al., 1996; O''Neill et al., 1996; Pellerin et al., 1996; Kaneko et al., 1997). The widespread occurrence and conserved structure of RG-II (Darvill et al., 1978; O''Neill et al., 1990) have led to the suggestion that borate ester cross-linked RG-II is required for the development of a normal cell wall (O''Neill et al., 1996; Matoh, 1997).One approach for determining the function of boron in plant cell walls is to compare the responses to boron deficiency of growing plant cells that are dividing and synthesizing primary cell walls with those of growth-limited plant cells in which the synthesis of primary cell walls is negligible. Suspension-cultured cells are well suited for this purpose because they may be reversibly transferred from a growth phase to a stationary phase. Continuous cell growth phase is maintained by frequent transfer of the cells into new growth medium (King, 1981; Kandarakov et al., 1994), whereas a stationary cell population is obtained by feeding the cells with Suc and by not subculturing them. Cells in the stationary phase are characterized by mechanically stabilized primary walls and reduced biosynthetic activity. Here we describe the responses of suspension-cultured Chenopodium album L. cells in the growth and stationary phases to boron deficiency. These cells have a high specific-growth rate, no significant lag phase, and reproducible changes in their wall pore size during the transition from the growth phase to the stationary phase (Titel et al., 1997).     

Structure and Function of Glycosylated Tandem Repeats from Candida albicans Als Adhesins

Tandem repeat (TR) regions are common in yeast adhesins, but their structures are unknown, and their activities are poorly understood. TR regions in Candida albicans Als proteins are conserved glycosylated 36-residue sequences with cell-cell aggregation activity (J. M. Rauceo, R. De Armond, H. Otoo, P. C. Kahn, S. A. Klotz, N. K. Gaur, and P. N. Lipke, Eukaryot. Cell 5:1664–1673, 2006). Ab initio modeling with either Rosetta or LINUS generated consistent structures of three-stranded antiparallel β-sheet domains, whereas randomly shuffled sequences with the same composition generated various structures with consistently higher energies. O- and N-glycosylation patterns showed that each TR domain had exposed hydrophobic surfaces surrounded by glycosylation sites. These structures are consistent with domain dimensions and stability measurements by atomic force microscopy (D. Alsteen, V. Dupres, S. A. Klotz, N. K. Gaur, P. N. Lipke, and Y. F. Dufrene, ACS Nano 3:1677–1682, 2009) and with circular dichroism determination of secondary structure and thermal stability. Functional assays showed that the hydrophobic surfaces of TR domains supported binding to polystyrene surfaces and other TR domains, leading to nonsaturable homophilic binding. The domain structures are like “classic” subunit interaction surfaces and can explain previously observed patterns of promiscuous interactions between TR domains in any Als proteins or between TR domains and surfaces of other proteins. Together, the modeling techniques and the supporting data lead to an approach that relates structure and function in many kinds of repeat domains in fungal adhesins.Yeast adhesins are a diverse set of cell adhesion proteins that mediate adhesion to host cells, environmental substrates, other fungi, and coinfecting bacteria (6, 8, 20, 21, 23, 29). The adhesins share common features, including compact N-terminal domains similar to Ig or lectin domains, Thr-rich midpieces, often in tandem repeats, and long highly glycosylated Ser/Thr-rich C-terminal regions that extend the functional domains out from the cell surface. No structures for the Thr-rich midpieces are known, but they can mediate aggregation of fungal cells (33, 35, 47). The prevalence and conservation of such repeats argue that they are functionally important, despite limited data on their structure and function.In Candida albicans, the Als adhesins are homologous proteins, products of 8 loci that encode numerous alleles of cell surface adhesins (16). In each mature Als protein, there are, from the N terminus, three tandem Ig-like domains, a β-sheet-rich conserved 127-residue amyloid-forming T region, a variable number of 36-residue tandem repeats (TRs), and a highly glycosylated stalk region that extends the N-terminal domains away from the cell surface (Fig. 1) (16, 33, 41). The C termini of these and other wall-associated adhesins are covalently cross-linked into the cell wall through transglycosylation of a modified glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchor (18, 25). This modular design, including tandem repeats, is typical of fungal adhesins (8).Open in a separate windowFig. 1.Schematic diagram of the sequence of Als5p. The regions are named above, and the number of amino acid residues in each region is shown below. The modeled sequences are in the TR region.The Als protein Ig-like region, T region, and TR region all have protein-protein interaction activities (26, 33, 35). The Ig-like regions can interact with diverse mammalian proteins, presumably in a way analogous to antibody-antigen binding, as has been shown in the homologous protein α-agglutinin from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (8, 24, 26, 35). The T regions interact through formation of amyloid-like structures both in vivo and in vitro (33, 34a, 36). An insight into the function of the tandem repeats followed from observations that Als proteins initiate and maintain cell-to-cell aggregations, either spontaneously (“autoaggregation”) or following adhesion to a bead-bound defined ligand (10, 11, 36). Aggregation is more extensive for Als proteins with more tandem repeats (26, 35). This result suggested that the tandem repeats are uniquely structured to facilitate or mediate the aggregative function. Circular dichroism spectroscopy of the TR region of Als5p shows a β-sheet-rich structure in the soluble protein (35).In support of their direct involvement in aggregation, the repeat region of the C. albicans adhesin Als5p mediates cell-cell aggregation in the absence of the Ig-like and T domains (35). Moreover, the repeats can also potentiate binding of Als5p to fibronectin (35). Thus, the TR domains mediate cellular aggregation and increased binding to fibronectin. In addition, TR domains and their amino acid sequences are highly conserved across several Candida species (3). These properties need to be explained by their three-dimensional structure.Because there are no homologous structures known, we modeled by two independent ab initio methods. Rosetta assembles structures by combining short peptide structures extracted from the protein structural database PDB (38), then combines structures in a Monte Carlo approach, and assesses energetics of assembled structures. Rosetta has recently been shown to generate accurate models for protein-sized domains (40). We also predicted structures with LINUS, which generates randomized structures and rapidly estimates energetics to choose low-energy models (45). The models were supported by structural analyses with atomic force microscopy and circular dichroism spectroscopy. Functional assays showed that the TR domains can mediate binding activities predicted from the calculated structures.     

Succinylome Analysis Reveals the Involvement of Lysine Succinylation in Metabolism in Pathogenic Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of human tuberculosis, remains one of the most prevalent human pathogens and a major cause of mortality worldwide. Metabolic network is a central mediator and defining feature of the pathogenicity of Mtb. Increasing evidence suggests that lysine succinylation dynamically regulates enzymes in carbon metabolism in both bacteria and human cells; however, its extent and function in Mtb remain unexplored. Here, we performed a global succinylome analysis of the virulent Mtb strain H37Rv by using high accuracy nano-LC-MS/MS in combination with the enrichment of succinylated peptides from digested cell lysates and subsequent peptide identification. In total, 1545 lysine succinylation sites on 626 proteins were identified in this pathogen. The identified succinylated proteins are involved in various biological processes and a large proportion of the succinylation sites are present on proteins in the central metabolism pathway. Site-specific mutations showed that succinylation is a negative regulatory modification on the enzymatic activity of acetyl-CoA synthetase. Molecular dynamics simulations demonstrated that succinylation affects the conformational stability of acetyl-CoA synthetase, which is critical for its enzymatic activity. Further functional studies showed that CobB, a sirtuin-like deacetylase in Mtb, functions as a desuccinylase of acetyl-CoA synthetase in in vitro assays. Together, our findings reveal widespread roles for lysine succinylation in regulating metabolism and diverse processes in Mtb. Our data provide a rich resource for functional analyses of lysine succinylation and facilitate the dissection of metabolic networks in this life-threatening pathogen.Post-translational modifications (PTMs)¹ are complex and fundamental mechanisms modulating diverse protein properties and functions, and have been associated with almost all known cellular pathways and disease processes (1, 2). Among the hundreds of different PTMs, acylations at lysine residues, such as acetylation (3–6), malonylation (7, 8), crotonylation (9, 10), propionylation (11–13), butyrylation (11, 13), and succinylation (7, 14–16) are crucial for functional regulations of many prokaryotic and eukaryotic proteins. Because these lysine PTMs depend on the acyl-CoA metabolic intermediates, such as acetyl-CoA (Ac-CoA), succinyl-CoA, and malonyl-CoA, lysine acylation could provide a mechanism to respond to changes in the energy status of the cell and regulate energy metabolism and the key metabolic pathways in diverse organisms (17, 18).Among these lysine PTMs, lysine succinylation is a highly dynamic and regulated PTM defined as transfer of a succinyl group (-CO-CH₂-CH₂-CO-) to a lysine residue of a protein molecule (8). It was recently identified and comprehensively validated in both bacterial and mammalian cells (8, 14, 16). It was also identified in core histones, suggesting that lysine succinylation may regulate the functions of histones and affect chromatin structure and gene expression (7). Accumulating evidence suggests that lysine succinylation is a widespread and important PTM in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes and regulates diverse cellular processes (16). The system-wide studies involving lysine-succinylated peptide immunoprecipitation and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) have been employed to analyze the bacteria (E. coli) (14, 16), yeast (S. cerevisiae), human (HeLa) cells, and mouse embryonic fibroblasts and liver cells (16, 19). These succinylome studies have generated large data sets of lysine-succinylated proteins in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes and demonstrated the diverse cellular functions of this PTM. Notably, lysine succinylation is widespread among diverse mitochondrial metabolic enzymes that are involved in fatty acid metabolism, amino acid degradation, and the tricarboxylic acid cycle (19, 20). Thus, lysine succinylation is reported as a functional PTM with the potential to impact mitochondrial metabolism and coordinate different metabolic pathways in human cells and bacteria (14, 19–22).Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), is a major cause of mortality worldwide and claims more human lives annually than any other bacterial pathogen (23). About one third of the world''s population is infected with Mtb, which leads to nearly 1.3 million deaths and 8.6 million new cases of TB in 2012 worldwide (24). Mtb remains a major threat to global health, especially in the developing countries. Emergence of multidrug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Mtb, and also the emergence of co-infection between TB and HIV have further worsened the situation (25–27). Among bacterial pathogens, Mtb has a distinctive life cycle spanning different environments and developmental stages (28). Especially, Mtb can exist in dormant or active states in the host, leading to asymptomatic latent TB infection or active TB disease (29). To achieve these different physiologic states, Mtb developed a mechanism to sense diverse signals from the host and to coordinately regulate multiple cellular processes and pathways (30, 31). Mtb has evolved its metabolic network to both maintain and propagate its survival as a species within humans (32–35). It is well accepted that metabolic network is a central mediator and defining feature of the pathogenicity of Mtb (23, 36–38). Knowledge of the regulation of metabolic pathways used by Mtb during infection is therefore important for understanding its pathogenicity, and can also guide the development of novel drug therapies (39). On the other hand, increasing evidence suggests that lysine succinylation dynamically regulates enzymes in carbon metabolism in both bacteria and human cells (14, 19–22). It is tempting to speculate that lysine succinylation may play an important regulatory role in metabolic processes in Mtb. However, to the best of our knowledge, no succinylated protein in Mtb has been identified, presenting a major obstacle to understand the regulatory roles of lysine succinylation in this life-threatening pathogen.In order to fill this gap in our knowledge, we have initiated a systematic study of the identities and functional roles of the succinylated protein in Mtb. Because Mtb H37Rv is the first sequenced Mtb strain (40) and has been extensively used for studies in dissecting the roles of individual genes in pathogenesis (41), it was selected as a test case. We analyzed the succinylome of Mtb H37Rv by using high accuracy nano-LC-MS/MS in combination with the enrichment of succinylated peptides from digested cell lysates and subsequent peptide identification. In total, 1545 lysine succinylation sites on 626 proteins were identified in this pathogen. The identified succinylated proteins are involved in various biological processes and render particular enrichment to metabolic process. A large proportion of the succinylation sites are present on proteins in the central metabolism pathway. We further dissected the regulatory role of succinylation on acetyl-CoA synthetase (Acs) via site-specific mutagenesis analysis and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations showed that reversible lysine succinylation could inhibit the activity of Acs. Further functional studies showed that CobB, a sirtuin-like deacetylase in Mtb, functions as a deacetylase and as a desuccinylase of Acs in in vitro assays. Together, our findings provide significant insights into the range of functions regulated by lysine succinylation in Mtb.     

A Saccharomyces cerevisiae Model Reveals In Vivo Functional Impairment of the Ogden Syndrome N-Terminal Acetyltransferase NAA10 Ser37Pro Mutant

N-terminal acetylation (Nt-acetylation) occurs on the majority of eukaryotic proteins and is catalyzed by N-terminal acetyltransferases (NATs). Nt-acetylation is increasingly recognized as a vital modification with functional implications ranging from protein degradation to protein localization. Although early genetic studies in yeast demonstrated that NAT-deletion strains displayed a variety of phenotypes, only recently, the first human genetic disorder caused by a mutation in a NAT gene was reported; boys diagnosed with the X-linked Ogden syndrome harbor a p.Ser37Pro (S37P) mutation in the gene encoding Naa10, the catalytic subunit of the NatA complex, and suffer from global developmental delays and lethality during infancy. Here, we describe a Saccharomyces cerevisiae model developed by introducing the human wild-type or mutant NatA complex into yeast lacking NatA (NatA-Δ). The wild-type human NatA complex phenotypically complemented the NatA-Δ strain, whereas only a partial rescue was observed for the Ogden mutant NatA complex suggesting that hNaa10 S37P is only partially functional in vivo. Immunoprecipitation experiments revealed a reduced subunit complexation for the mutant hNatA S37P next to a reduced in vitro catalytic activity. We performed quantitative Nt-acetylome analyses on a control yeast strain (yNatA), a yeast NatA deletion strain (yNatA-Δ), a yeast NatA deletion strain expressing wild-type human NatA (hNatA), and a yeast NatA deletion strain expressing mutant human NatA (hNatA S37P). Interestingly, a generally reduced degree of Nt-acetylation was observed among a large group of NatA substrates in the yeast expressing mutant hNatA as compared with yeast expressing wild-type hNatA. Combined, these data provide strong support for the functional impairment of hNaa10 S37P in vivo and suggest that reduced Nt-acetylation of one or more target substrates contributes to the pathogenesis of the Ogden syndrome. Comparative analysis between human and yeast NatA also provided new insights into the co-evolution of the NatA complexes and their substrates. For instance, (Met-)Ala- N termini are more prevalent in the human proteome as compared with the yeast proteome, and hNatA displays a preference toward these N termini as compared with yNatA.Up to 85% of soluble eukaryotic proteins carry an N-terminal acetyl group at their N terminus, which is the result of a co-translational protein modification referred to as N-terminal protein acetylation (Nt-acetylation) or N^α-acetylation (1). This presumed irreversible protein modification is catalyzed by a specific category of the GCN5-related N-acetyltransferase domain containing superfamily of acetyltransferases; the ribosome associated N-terminal acetyltransferases or NATs¹ (2). NATs catalyze the acetyl transfer from acetyl coenzyme A (Ac-CoA) to a primary α-amine of the first amino acid residue of a nascent protein chain. In eukaryotes, NATs are composed of at least one catalytic subunit and mainly target different substrate N termini based on their N-terminal sequences (3).To date, five human NATs hNatA, hNatB, and hNatC; constituting the major human NAT complexes, and hNatD and hNatF have been identified and their substrate specificity characterized (1, 4–8). In addition, a putative hNatE complex has been described (9–10). Except for NatF, which is only expressed in higher eukaryotes (1), the substrate specificity profiles of the NatA-E complexes seem to be conserved among eukaryotes (5–9, 11–13).Contrary to the original assumption that Nt-acetylation protected proteins from degradation (14), it was more recently demonstrated that this modification creates specific degradation signals (termed Ac/N-degrons) in cellular proteins, thereby diversifying this original view substantially. These degrons target at least some Nt-acetylated proteins for the conditional degradation by a novel branch of the N-end rule pathway, an ubiquitin-dependent proteolytic system (15–16). In addition, numerous reports implicate Nt-acetylation in cellular differentiation, survival, metabolism, and proliferation, thereby linking it to cancer (17–18). As such, Nt-acetylation is now linked to a whole range of molecular implications including protein destabilization and degradation by the Nt-acetylation dependent recruitment of ubiquitin ligases (15–16), protein translocation (19), membrane attachment (20), and protein complex formation (21).Among all characterized NATs, NatA displays the broadest substrate specificity profile and thus represents the primary NAT in terms of substrate N termini as it is responsible for the Nt-acetylation of the methionine aminopeptidase (MetAP) iMet-processed serine, threonine, alanine, glycine, and valine starting N termini (3). The human NatA complex is composed of two essential subunits; the catalytic subunit hNaa10 (hARD1) and the regulatory subunit hNaa15 (NATH/hNAT1) (4). Deregulations of hNaa10 and/or NatA expression have been linked to various signaling molecules including hypoxia inducible factor-1α, DNA methyltransferase1/E-cadherin, β-catenin/cyclin D1, and Bcl-xL, showing its involvement in hypoxia, tumorigenesis, cell cycle progression, and apoptosis (17, 22–26).Recently, the first structures of NATs and a NAT-complex were solved, providing a molecular understanding of the sequence specific Nt-acetylation of protein N termini (27–30). Structural analyses of noncomplexed Naa10 and NatA from Schizosaccharomyces pombe reveal an allosteric modulator function of Naa15 in steering Naa10 specificity and provide a rational for the distinctive substrate specificity profiles observed when assaying non-complexed versus complexed Naa10 (10, 27), with both forms co-existing in cells (10). In particular, three essential catalytic Naa10 residues were found to be incorrectly positioned in non-complexed Naa10, while these shift into the active site in Naa15-complexed Naa10, thereby permitting canonical NatA-mediated Nt-acetylation. Interestingly, noncomplexed Naa10 was shown to efficiently Nt-acetylate glutamate and aspartate starting N termini, whereas poorly acetylating canonical NatA type N termini (10). The study of Liszczak et al. further showed that NatA substrate binding specificity was coupled to the catalytic mechanism being used (27). More specifically, an essential glutamate residue (Glu24 in the protein accession {"type":"entrez-protein","attrs":{"text":"Q9UTI3","term_id":"74625957","term_text":"Q9UTI3"}}Q9UTI3 (Swiss-Prot)) involved in catalysis, precludes methionine from entering the specificity pocket, whereas cognate NatA substrate N-terminal residues can easily be accommodated. Interestingly, and in contrast to NatA, both wild-type Naa10 and Glu24 mutated Naa10 (Naa10 E24A) were still capable of Nt-acetylating acidic amino acid starting N termini, most likely because of the substrate side-chain carboxyl moiety acting as a functional replacement group in the process of catalysis, whereas essentially no activity could be observed when probing a cognate NatA substrate (27).Early yeast studies demonstrated that strains with mutated or deleted NAT genes were viable, but displayed a number of different phenotypes (31). For NatA, the first phenotypes described were defects in sporulation, mating, and entry into stationary phase when NAA10 (ARD1) was mutated (32). Four years later, the overlapping phenotypes of NAA10 and NAA15 (NAT1) mutant strains, revealed, along with other data, that Naa10 and Naa15 are in fact components of the NatA acetyltransferase complex (33–34). As compared with NatA phenotypes, NatB phenotypes are more severe, including slow growth and defects in mitochondrial inheritance (35–36). NatC subunits were initially found to be essential for propagation of the l-A dsRNA virus, and further for growth on nonfermentable carbon sources (37–39). The first reports implicating NAT gene point mutations in human genetic disorders only recently emerged. More specifically, two different point mutations in the X-linked NAA10 gene were both found to cause developmental delays and were linked to the Ogden syndrome (S37P) (40) and intellectual disability (R116W) (41), highlighting the essential importance of NATs and protein Nt-acetylation in biology and disease. Further, in Caenorhabditis elegans (42), Drosophila melanogaster (43), and Trypanosoma brucei (44), Naa10 was proven to be essential and, strengthened by the observed detrimental effects of NAA10 mutations (40–41), the NAA10 gene function is also believed to be essential in human.Ogden syndrome boys harboring the p.Ser37Pro variant in the gene encoding Naa10 are characterized by craniofacial abnormalities, failure to thrive, developmental delay, hypotonia, cardiac arrhythmias, cryptorchidism, and an aged appearance, ultimately resulting in mortality during infancy (40). Although this mutation was shown to significantly impair Naa10 catalytic activity in vitro, we here assessed the influence and functional in vitro and in vivo consequences of this mutation on NatA complex formation and NatA activity in a yeast model. By phenotypic screening in yeast, we show that hNaa10 S37P displays a significantly impaired functionality in vivo. Further, using immunoprecipitation, we show that the human Naa10-Naa15 complex formation is negatively affected by the S37P mutation, and that immunoprecipitated hNatA S37P also displays a reduced in vitro catalytic activity as compared with wild-type hNatA. Finally, quantitative Nt-acetylome analyses suggest that reduced Nt-acetylation of one or more target substrates contributes to the pathogenesis of the Ogden syndrome.