Purified,recombinant TagF protein from Bacillus subtilis 168 catalyzes the polymerization of glycerol phosphate onto a membrane acceptor in vitro

We report the first characterization of a recombinant protein involved in the polymerization of wall teichoic acid. Previously, a study of the teichoic acid polymerase activity associated with membranes from Bacillus subtilis 168 strains bearing thermosensitive mutations in tagB, tagD, and tagF implicated TagF as the poly(glycerol phosphate) polymerase (Pooley, H. M., Abellan, F. X., and Karamata, D. (1992) J. Bacteriol. 174, 646-649). In the work reported here, we have demonstrated an unequivocal role for tagF in the thermosensitivity of one such mutant (tagF1) by conditional complementation at the restrictive temperature with tagF under control of the xylose promoter at the amyE locus. We have overexpressed and purified recombinant B. subtilis TagF protein, and we provide direct biochemical evidence that this enzyme is responsible for polymerization of poly(glycerol phosphate) teichoic acid in B. subtilis 168. Recombinant hexahistidine-tagged TagF protein was purified from Escherichia coli and was used to develop a novel membrane pelleting assay to monitor poly(glycerol phosphate) polymerase activity. Purified TagF was shown to incorporate radioactivity from its substrate CDP-[(14)C]glycerol into a membrane fraction in vitro. This activity showed a saturable dependence on the concentration of CDP-glycerol (K(m) of 340 microm) and the membrane acceptor (half-maximal activity at 650 microg of protein/ml of purified B. subtilis membranes). High pressure liquid chromatography analysis confirmed the polymeric nature of the reaction product, approximately 35 glycerol phosphate units in length.     

Precise Deletion of tagD and Controlled Depletion of Its Product, Glycerol 3-Phosphate Cytidylyltransferase, Leads to Irregular Morphology and Lysis of Bacillus subtilis Grown at Physiological Temperature

Using a previously reported conditional expression system for use in Bacillus subtilis (A. P. Bhavsar, X. Zhao, and E. D. Brown, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 67:403-410, 2001), we report the first precise deletion of a teichoic acid biosynthesis (tag) gene, tagD, in B. subtilis. This teichoic acid mutant showed a lethal phenotype when characterized at a physiological temperature and in a defined genetic background. This tagD mutant was subject to full phenotypic rescue upon expression of the complementing copy of tagD. Depletion of the tagD gene product (glycerol 3-phosphate cytidylyltransferase) via modulated expression of tagD from the amyE locus revealed structural defects centered on shape, septation, and division. Thickening of the wall and ultimately lysis followed these events.     

Construction and characterization of recombinant Bacillus subtilis JY123 able to transport xylose efficiently

It has been known that wild type Bacillus subtilis cannot grow rapidly in a minimal medium containing xylose as a sole carbon source because it does not have a xylose-specific transporter. In this study, the arabinose:H(+) symporter, AraE protein from B. subtilis was expressed in B. subtilis 168 in order to transport xylose efficiently. The AraE expression cassette was constructed to contain the xylose-inducible xylA promoter, araE gene and fba terminator, and integrated into the chromosomal amyE gene in B. subtilis 168. Batch cultures in a defined medium with xylose only or a mixture of xylose and glucose showed that expression of AraE led to fast and complete consumption of initially added xylose and hence a considerable increase in cell growth of the recombinant B. subtilis JY123 expressing AraE. Considering the systematic analysis of cell growth, sugar consumption, respiratory quotient and xylulokinase activity, it was certain that AraE protein could transport xylose into B. subtilis efficiently.     

Teichoic acid is an essential polymer in Bacillus subtilis that is functionally distinct from teichuronic acid

Wall teichoic acids are anionic, phosphate-rich polymers linked to the peptidoglycan of gram-positive bacteria. In Bacillus subtilis, the predominant wall teichoic acid types are poly(glycerol phosphate) in strain 168 and poly(ribitol phosphate) in strain W23, and they are synthesized by the tag and tar gene products, respectively. Growing evidence suggests that wall teichoic acids are essential in B. subtilis; however, it is widely believed that teichoic acids are dispensable under phosphate-limiting conditions. In the work reported here, we carefully studied the dispensability of teichoic acid under phosphate-limiting conditions by constructing three new mutants. These strains, having precise deletions in tagB, tagF, and tarD, were dependent on xylose-inducible complementation from a distal locus (amyE) for growth. The tarD deletion interrupted poly(ribitol phosphate) synthesis in B. subtilis and represents a unique deletion of a tar gene. When teichoic acid biosynthetic proteins were depleted, the mutants showed a coccoid morphology and cell wall thickening. The new wall teichoic acid biogenesis mutants generated in this work and a previously reported tagD mutant were not viable under phosphate-limiting conditions in the absence of complementation. Cell wall analysis of B. subtilis grown under phosphate-limited conditions showed that teichoic acid contributed approximately one-third of the wall anionic content. These data suggest that wall teichoic acid has an essential function in B. subtilis that cannot be replaced by teichuronic acid.     

Enhanced hyaluronic acid production in Bacillus subtilis by coexpressing bacterial hemoglobin

Bacillus subtilis strains that can produce hyaluronic acid (HA) were constructed by integrating the HA synthase gene (hasA) and the UDP-glucose dehydrogenase gene of group C Streptococcus (hasB) or of B. subtilis itself (tauD) into the amyE locus of the B. subtilis chromosome. All of the inserted genes were under the control of a strong constitutive vegII promoter of B. subtilis. Although HA production could be achieved by expressing hasA alone, coexpressing hasB or tauD with hasA could enhance HA production at least 2-fold. To replenish the energy consumed for HA biosynthesis, Vitreoscilla hemoglobin (VHb) was coexpressed with the HA-expressing genes. With the expression of VHb, not only the cell concentration was enhanced 25%, but also HA production was further increased by 100%. About 1.8 g/L of HA was obtained by the recombinant strain B. subtilis carrying VHb, hasA, and tauD genes in the expression cassette after 30 h cultivation.     

Characterization of the depletion of 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol-2,4-cyclodiphosphate synthase in Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis

The ispF gene product in Escherichia coli has been shown to catalyze the formation of 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 2,4-cyclodiphosphate (MEC) in the deoxyxylulose (DOXP) pathway for isoprenoid biosynthesis. In this work, the E. coli gene ispF and its Bacillus subtilis orthologue, yacN, were deleted and conditionally complemented by expression of these genes from distant loci in the respective organisms. In E. coli, complementation was achieved through integration of ispF at the araBAD locus with control from the arabinose-inducible araBAD promoter, while in B. subtilis, yacN was placed at amyE under control of the xylose-inducible xylA promoter. In both cases, growth was severely retarded in the absence of inducer, consistent with these genes being essential for survival. E. coli cells depleted of MEC synthase revealed a filamentous phenotype. This was in contrast to the depletion of MEC synthase in B. subtilis, which resulted in a loss of rod shape, irregular septation, multicompartmentalized cells, and thickened cell walls. To probe the nature of the predominant deficiency of MEC synthase-depleted cells, we investigated the sensitivity of these conditionally complemented mutants, grown with various concentrations of inducer, to a wide variety antibiotics. Synthetic lethal behavior in MEC synthase-depleted cells was prevalent for cell wall-active antibiotics.     

CTP:glycerol 3-phosphate cytidylyltransferase (TarD) from Staphylococcus aureus catalyzes the cytidylyl transfer via an ordered Bi-Bi reaction mechanism with micromolar K(m) values

CTP:glycerol 3-phosphate cytidylyltransferase catalyzes the formation of CDP-glycerol, an activated form of glycerol 3-phosphate and key precursor to wall teichoic acid biogenesis in Gram-positive bacteria. There is high sequence identity (69%) between the CTP:glycerol 3-phosphate cytidylyltransferases from Bacillus subtilis 168 (TagD) and Staphylococcus aureus (TarD). The B. subtilis TagD protein was shown to catalyze cytidylyltransferase via a random mechanism with millimolar K(m) values for both CTP and glycerol 3-phosphate [J. Biol. Chem. 268, (1993) 16648] and exhibited negative cooperativity in the binding of substrates but not in catalysis [J. Biol. Chem. 276, (2001) 37922]. In the work described here on the S. aureus TarD protein, we have elucidated a steady state kinetic mechanism that is markedly different from that determined for B. subtilis TagD. Steady state kinetic experiments with recombinant, purified TarD employed a high-performance liquid chromatography assay developed in this work. The data were consistent with a ternary complex model. The K(m) values for CTP and glycerol 3-phosphate were 36 and 21 microM, respectively, and the k(cat) was 2.6 s(-1). Steady state kinetic analysis of the reverse (pyrophosphorylase) reaction was also consistent with a ternary complex model. Product inhibition studies indicated an ordered Bi-Bi reaction mechanism where glycerol 3-phosphate was the leading substrate and the release of CDP-glycerol preceded that of pyrophosphate. Finally, we investigated the capacity of S. aureus tarD to substitute for tagD in B. subtilis. The tarD gene was placed under control of the xylose promoter in a B. subtilis 168 mutant defective in tagD (temperature-sensitive, tag-12). Growth of the resulting strain at the restrictive temperature (47 degrees C) was shown to be xylose-dependent.     

The gene amyE(TV1) codes for a nonglucogenic alpha-amylase from Thermoactinomyces vulgaris 94-2A in Bacillus subtilis.

We isolated the gene amyE(TV1) from Thermoactinomyces vulgaris 94-2A encoding a nonglucogenic alpha-amylase (AmyTV1). A chromosomal DNA fragment of 2,247 bp contained an open reading frame of 483 codons, which was expressed in Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. The deduced amino acid sequence of the AmyTV1 protein was confirmed by sequencing of several peptides derived from the enzyme isolated from a T. vulgaris 94-2A culture. The amino acid sequence was aligned with several known alpha-amylase sequences. We found 83% homology with the 48-kDa alpha-amylase part of the Bacillus polymyxa beta-alpha-amylase polyprotein and 50% homology with Taka amylase A of Aspergillus oryzae but only 45% homology with another T. vulgaris amylase (neopullulanase, TVA II) recently cloned from strain R-47. The putative promoter region was characterized with primer extension and deletion experiments and by expression studies with B. subtilis. Multiple promoter sites (P3, P2, and P1) were found; P1 alone drives about 1/10 of the AmyTV1 expression directed by the native tandem configuration P3P2P1. The expression levels in B. subtilis could be enhanced by fusion of the amyE(TV1) coding region to the promoter of the Bacillus amyloliquefaciens alpha-amylase gene.     

A Bacillus subtilis 168 mutant with increased xylose uptake can utilize xylose as sole carbon source

Abstract Bacillus subtilis 168 is unable to effectively utilize xylose as sole carbon source. We demonstrate here that this strain cannot actively transport xylose into the cell. After leaving B. subtilis 168 for a few days on minimal plates with xylose as sole carbon source large colonies arise with a frequency of 1 × 10⁻⁶/cell. These mutants grow well on xylose and efficiently take up that sugar. This new property is not inducible by xylose, indicating that the mutation is neither in the xyl nor in the xyn operon.     

Isolation and characterization of a cis-acting mutation conferring catabolite repression resistance to alpha-amylase synthesis in Bacillus subtilis.

Bacillus subtilis 168GR10 was shown to contain a mutation, gra-10, which allowed normal temporal activation of alpha-amylase synthesis in the presence of a concentration of glucose that is inhibitory to activation of amylase synthesis in the parent strain, 168. The gra-10 mutation was mapped by phage PBS-1-mediated transduction and by transformation to a site between lin-2 and aroI906, very tightly linked to amyE, the alpha-amylase structural gene. The gra-10 mutation did not pleiotropically affect catabolite repression of sporulation or of the synthesis of extracellular proteases or RNase and was unable to confer glucose-resistance to the synthesis of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase encoded by the cat-86 gene driven by the amyE promoter region (amyR1) inserted into the promoter-probe plasmid pPL603B. It therefore appears that gra-10 defines a cis-regulatory site for catabolite repression, but not for temporal activation, of amyE expression. The evidence shows that temporal activation and glucose-mediated repression of alpha-amylase synthesis in B. subtilis 168 are distinct phenomena that can be separated by mutation.