Evolutionary adaptation of the essential tRNA methyltransferase TrmD to the signaling molecule 3,5-cAMP in bacteria.

The nucleotide signaling molecule 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (3',5'-cAMP) plays important physiological roles, ranging from carbon catabolite repression in bacteria to mediating the action of hormones in higher eukaryotes, including human. However, it remains unclear whether 3',5'-cAMP is universally present in the Firmicutes group of bacteria. We hypothesized that searching for proteins that bind 3',5'-cAMP might provide new insight into this question. Accordingly, we performed a genome-wide screen, and identified the essential Staphylococcus aureus tRNA m1G37 methyltransferase enzyme TrmD, which is conserved in all three domains of life, as a tight 3',5'-cAMP binding protein. TrmD enzymes are known to use S-adenosyl-L-methionine (AdoMet) as substrate; we shown that 3',5'-cAMP binds competitively with AdoMet to the S. aureus TrmD protein, indicating an overlapping binding site. However, the physiological relevance of this discovery remained unclear, as we were unable to identify a functional adenylate cyclase in S. aureus and only detected 2',3'-cAMP but not 3',5'-cAMP in cellular extracts. Interestingly, TrmD proteins from Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, organisms known to synthesize 3',5'-cAMP, did not bind this signaling nucleotide. Comparative bioinformatics, mutagenesis and biochemical analyses revealed that the highly conserved Tyr86 residue in E. coli TrmD is essential to discriminate between 3',5'-cAMP and the native substrate AdoMet. Combined with a phylogenetic analysis, these results suggest that amino acids in the substrate binding pocket of TrmD underwent an adaptive evolution to accommodate the emergence of adenylate cyclases and thus the signaling molecule 3',5'-cAMP. Altogether this further indicates that S. aureus does not produce 3',5'-cAMP, which would otherwise competitively inhibit an essential enzyme

A Minimal Threshold of c-di-GMP Is Essential for Fruiting Body Formation and Sporulation in Myxococcus xanthus

Generally, the second messenger bis-(3’-5’)-cyclic dimeric GMP (c-di-GMP) regulates the switch between motile and sessile lifestyles in bacteria. Here, we show that c-di-GMP is an essential regulator of multicellular development in the social bacterium Myxococcus xanthus. In response to starvation, M. xanthus initiates a developmental program that culminates in formation of spore-filled fruiting bodies. We show that c-di-GMP accumulates at elevated levels during development and that this increase is essential for completion of development whereas excess c-di-GMP does not interfere with development. MXAN3735 (renamed DmxB) is identified as a diguanylate cyclase that only functions during development and is responsible for this increased c-di-GMP accumulation. DmxB synthesis is induced in response to starvation, thereby restricting DmxB activity to development. DmxB is essential for development and functions downstream of the Dif chemosensory system to stimulate exopolysaccharide accumulation by inducing transcription of a subset of the genes encoding proteins involved in exopolysaccharide synthesis. The developmental defects in the dmxB mutant are non-cell autonomous and rescued by co-development with a strain proficient in exopolysaccharide synthesis, suggesting reduced exopolysaccharide accumulation as the causative defect in this mutant. The NtrC-like transcriptional regulator EpsI/Nla24, which is required for exopolysaccharide accumulation, is identified as a c-diGMP receptor, and thus a putative target for DmxB generated c-di-GMP. Because DmxB can be—at least partially—functionally replaced by a heterologous diguanylate cyclase, these results altogether suggest a model in which a minimum threshold level of c-di-GMP is essential for the successful completion of multicellular development in M. xanthus

New Insights into the Cyclic di-Adenosine Monophosphate (c-di-AMP) Degradation Pathway and the Requirement of the Cyclic-Dinucleotide for Acid Stress Resistance in Staphylococcus aureus.

Nucleotide signaling networks are key to facilitate alterations in gene expression, protein function and enzyme activity in response to diverse stimuli. Cyclic di-adenosine monophosphate (c-di-AMP) is an important secondary messenger molecule produced by the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus and is involved in regulating a number of physiological processes including potassium transport. S. aureus must ensure tight control over its cellular levels as both high levels of the dinucleotide and its absence result in a number of detrimental phenotypes. Here we show that in addition to the membrane bound Asp-His-His and Asp-His-His associated (DHH/DHHA1) domain-containing phosphodiesterase (PDE) GdpP, S. aureus produces a second cytoplasmic DHH/DHHA1 PDE Pde2. Although capable of hydrolyzing c-di-AMP, Pde2 preferentially converts linear 5-phosphadenylyl-adenosine (pApA) to AMP. Using a pde2 mutant strain, pApA was detected for the first time in S. aureus, leading us to speculate that this dinucleotide may have a regulatory role under certain conditions. Moreover, pApA is involved in a feedback inhibition loop that limits GdpP-dependent c-di-AMP hydrolysis. Another protein linked to the regulation of c-di-AMP levels in bacteria is the predicted regulator protein YbbR. Here, it is shown that a ybbR mutant S. aureus strain has increased acid sensitivity that can be bypassed by the acquisition of mutations in a number of genes, including the gene coding for the diadenylate cyclase DacA. We further show that c-di-AMP levels are slightly elevated in the ybbR suppressor strains tested as compared to the wild-type strain. With this, we not only identified a new role for YbbR in acid stress resistance in S. aureus, but also provide further insight into how c-di-AMP levels impact acid tolerance in this organism

Simultaneous Detection of Whole Blood Chemiluminescence in Microtitre Plates

Peer Reviewe

A liquid chromatography-coupled tandem mass spectrometry method for quantitation of cyclic di-guanosine monophosphate

Cyclic di-guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP) represents an important ubiquitous second messenger in bacteria. It controls the transition between a sessile and a motile lifestyle of bacteria and, hence, affects the formation of biofilms which are highly resistant to antimicrobial treatment. c-di-GMP is synthesized by di-guanylate cyclases (DGCs) and degraded by specific phosphodiesterases (PDEs), two highly abundant protein families in bacteria. We have established a robust and highly sensitive high performance liquid chromatography-coupled tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) based method for the quantitation of c-di-GMP and investigated various method performance parameters such as limit of detection (LOD), lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ), linearity, accuracy, recovery and analyte stability. As a proof of principle we used this method to accurately measure the activity of the prototype DGC PleD* from Caulobacter crescentus in vitro. In addition the methodology was successfully applied to determine in vivo levels of c-di-GMP in bacterial extracts of E. coli at different stages of bacterial growth. This demonstrates that our method is suitable for the sensitive and specific quantitation of c-di-GMP in bacterial cell extracts