Co-evolution of quaternary organization and novel RNA tertiary interactions revealed in the crystal structure of a bacterial protein–RNA toxin–antitoxin system

Genes encoding toxin–antitoxin (TA) systems are near ubiquitous in bacterial genomes and they play key roles in important aspects of bacterial physiology, including genomic stability, formation of persister cells under antibiotic stress, and resistance to phage infection. The CptIN locus from Eubacterium rectale is a member of the recently-discovered Type III class of TA systems, defined by a protein toxin suppressed by direct interaction with a structured RNA antitoxin. Here, we present the crystal structure of the CptIN protein–RNA complex to 2.2 Å resolution. The structure reveals a new heterotetrameric quaternary organization for the Type III TA class, and the RNA antitoxin bears a novel structural feature of an extended A-twist motif within the pseudoknot fold. The retention of a conserved ribonuclease active site as well as traits normally associated with TA systems, such as plasmid maintenance, implicates a wider functional role for Type III TA systems. We present evidence for the co-variation of the Type III component pair, highlighting a distinctive evolutionary process in which an enzyme and its substrate co-evolve

The essential peptidoglycan glycosyltransferase MurG forms a complex with proteins involved in lateral envelope growth as well as with proteins involved in cell division in Escherichia coli

In Escherichia coli many enzymes including MurG are directly involved in the synthesis and assembly of peptidoglycan. MurG is an essential glycosyltransferase catalysing the last intracellular step of peptidoglycan synthesis. To elucidate its role during elongation and division events, localization of MurG using immunofluorescence microscopy was performed. MurG exhibited a random distribution in the cell envelope with a relatively higher intensity at the division site. This mid-cell localization was dependent on the presence of a mature divisome. Its localization in the lateral cell wall appeared to require the presence of MreCD. This could be indicative of a potential interaction between MurG and other proteins. Investigating this by immunoprecipitation revealed the association of MurG with MreB and MraY in the same protein complex. In view of this, the loss of rod shape of ΔmreBCD strain could be ascribed to the loss of MurG membrane localization. Consequently, this could prevent the localized supply of the lipid II precursor to the peptidoglycan synthesizing machinery involved in cell elongation. It is postulated that the involvement of MurG in the peptidoglycan synthesis concurs with two complexes, one implicated in cell elongation and the other in division. A model representing the first complex is proposed

Biosíntesis y regulación de los antifúngicos solanimicina y herbicolina A en fitobacterias

Comunicación oral presentada en: X Reunión del Grupo Especializado Microbiología de Plantas - MiP23. Nerja, Málaga, 25-27 enero (2023)Este trabajo está financiado por un proyecto del Plan Estatal del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación/Agencia Estatal de Investigación (PID2019-103972GA-I00) a MAM. CLM es portadora de un contrato de garantía juvenil de la Secretaría General de Universidades, Investigación y Tecnología de la Junta de Andalucía” (AND21_EEZ_M2_044)

Herbicolin A production and its modulation by quorum sensing in a Pantoea agglomerans rhizobacterium bioactive against a broad spectrum of plant-pathogenic fungi

Global population growth makes it necessary to increase agricultural production yields. However, climate change impacts and diseases caused by plant pathogens are challenging modern agriculture. Therefore, it is necessary to look for alternatives to the excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The plant microbiota plays an essential role in plant nutrition and health, and offers enormous potential to meet future challenges of agriculture. In this context, here we characterized the antifungal properties of the rhizosphere bacterium Pantoea agglomerans 9Rz4, which is active against a broad spectrum of plant pathogenic fungi. Chemical analyses revealed that strain 9Rz4 produces the antifungal herbicolin A and its biosynthetic gene cluster was identified and characterized. We found that the only acyl-homoserine lactone-based quorum sensing system of 9Rz4 modulates herbicolin A gene cluster expression. No role of plasmid carriage in the production of herbicolin A was observed. Plant assays revealed that herbicolin A biosynthesis does not affect the root colonization ability of P. agglomerans 9Rz4. Current legislative restrictions are aimed at reducing the use of chemical pesticides in agriculture, and the results derived from this study may lay the foundations for the development of novel biopesticides from rhizosphere microorganisms.Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Grant/Award Number: BB/N008081/1; Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation/Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Grant/Award Number: PID2019-103972GA- I0

Solanimycin: biosynthesis and distribution of a new antifungal antibiotic regulated by two quorum-sensing systems

The increasing emergence of drug-resistant fungal infections has necessitated a search for new compounds capable of combating fungal pathogens of plants, animals, and humans. Microorganisms represent the main source of antibiotics with applicability in agriculture and in the clinic, but many aspects of their metabolic potential remain to be explored. This report describes the discovery and characterization of a new antifungal compound, solanimycin, produced by a hybrid polyketide/nonribosomal peptide (PKS/NRPS) system in Dickeya solani, the enterobacterial pathogen of potato. Solanimycin was active against a broad range of plant-pathogenic fungi of global economic concern and the human pathogen Candida albicans. The genomic cluster responsible for solanimycin production was defined and analyzed to identify the corresponding biosynthetic proteins, which include four multimodular PKS/NRPS proteins and several tailoring enzymes. Antifungal production in D. solani was enhanced in response to experimental conditions found in infected potato tubers and high-density fungal cultures. Solanimycin biosynthesis was cell density dependent in D. solani and was controlled by both the ExpIR acyl-homoserine lactone and Vfm quorum-sensing systems of the bacterial phytopathogen. The expression of the solanimycin cluster was also regulated at the post-transcriptional level, with the regulator RsmA playing a major role. The solanimycin biosynthetic cluster was conserved across phylogenetically distant bacterial genera, and multiple pieces of evidence support that the corresponding gene clusters were acquired by horizontal gene transfer. Given its potent broad-range antifungal properties, this study suggests that solanimycin and related molecules may have potential utility for agricultural and clinical exploitation. IMPORTANCE Fungal infections represent a major clinical, agricultural, and food security threat worldwide, which is accentuated due to the difficult treatment of these infections. Microorganisms represent a prolific source of antibiotics, and current data support that this enormous biosynthetic potential has been scarcely explored. To improve the performance in the discovery of novel antimicrobials, there is a need to diversify the isolation niches for new antibiotic-producing microorganisms as well as to scrutinize novel phylogenetic positions. With the identification of the antifungal antibiotic solanimycin in a broad diversity of phytopathogenic Dickeya spp., we provide further support for the potential of plant-associated bacteria for the biosynthesis of novel antimicrobials. The complex regulatory networks involved in solanimycin production reflect the high metabolic cost of bacterial secondary metabolism. This metabolic regulatory control makes many antibiotics cryptic under standard laboratory conditions, and mimicking environmental conditions, as shown here, is a strategy to activate cryptic antibiotic clusters.The work was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC; UK) through award BB/N008081/1 to G.P.C.S., F.L., and J.M. M.A.M. was supported by an EU Marie-Curie Intra-European Fellowship for Career Development (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF) grant number 298003. Work in the Matilla laboratory was supported by grant from the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation/Agencia Estatal de Investigación 10.13039/501100011033 (PID2019-103972GA-I00). Work with plant pathogens was carried out under DEFRA license no. 50864/197900/1

Evolution of Pectobacterium bacteriophage ΦM1 to escape two bifunctional Type III toxin-antitoxin and abortive infection systems through mutations in a single viral gene

Some bacteria, when infected by their viral parasites (bacteriophages), undergo a suicidal response that also terminates productive viral replication (abortive infection; Abi). This response can be viewed as an altruistic act protecting the uninfected bacterial clonal population. Abortive infection can occur through the action of Type III protein-RNA toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems, such as ToxINPa from the phytopathogen, Pectobacterium atrosepticum. Rare spontaneous mutants evolved in the generalized transducing phage, ΦM1, which escaped ToxINPa-mediated abortive infection in P. atrosepticum. ΦM1 is a member of the Podoviridae and member of the “KMV-like viruses”, a subset of the T7 supergroup. Genomic sequencing of ΦM1 escape mutants revealed single-base changes which clustered in a single open reading frame. The “escape” gene product, M1-23, was highly toxic to the host bacterium when over-expressed, but mutations in M1-23 that enabled an escape phenotype caused M1-23 to be less toxic. M1-23 is encoded within the DNA metabolism modular section of the phage genome, and when it was over-expressed, it co-purified with the host nucleotide excision repair protein, UvrA. While the M1-23 protein interacted with UvrA in co-immunoprecipitation assays, a UvrA mutant strain still aborted ΦM1, suggesting that the interaction is not critical for the Type III TA Abi activity. Additionally, ΦM1 escaped a heterologous Type III TA system (TenpINPl) from Photorhabdus luminescens (reconstituted in P. atrosepticum) through mutations in the same protein, M1-23. The mechanistic action of M1-23 is currently unknown but further analysis of this protein could provide insights into the mode of activation of both systems

Evaluation of phenotypic and molecular typing techniques for determining diversity in Erwinia carotovora subsp. atroseptica

A number of phenotypic and molecular fingerprinting techniques, including physiological profiling (Biolog), restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC) and a phage typing system, were evaluated for their ability to differentiate between 60 strains of Erwinia carotovora ssp. atroseptica (Eca) from eight west European countries. These techniques were compared with other fingerprinting techniques, random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and Ouchterlony double diffusion (ODD), previously used to type this pathogen. Where possible, data were represented as dendrograms and groups/subgroups of strains identified. Simpson's index of diversity (Simpson's D) was used to compare groupings obtained with the different techniques which, with the exception of Biolog, gave values of 0.46 (RFLP), 0.39 (ERIC), 0.83 (phage typng), 0.82 (RAPD) and 0.26 (ODD). Of the techniques tested, phage typing showed the highest level of diversity within Eca, and this technique will now form the basis of studies into the epidemiology of blackleg disease