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Heme rescues a two-component system Leptospira biflexa mutant.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Heme is typically a major iron source for bacteria, but little is known about how bacteria of the Leptospira genus, composed of both saprophytic and pathogenic species, access heme. RESULTS: In this study, we analysed a two-component system of the saprophyte Leptospira biflexa. In vitro phosphorylation and site-directed mutagenesis assays showed that Hklep is a histidine kinase which, after autophosphorylation of a conserved histidine, transfers the phosphate to an essential aspartate of the response regulator Rrlep. Hklep/Rrlep two-component system mutants were generated in L. biflexa. The mutants could only grow in medium supplemented with hemin or delta-aminolevulinic acid (ALA). In the pathogen L. interrogans, the hklep and rrlep orthologous genes are located between hemE and hemL genes, which encode proteins involved in heme biosynthesis. The L. biflexa hklep mutant could be complemented with a replicative plasmid harbouring the L. interrogans orthologous gene, suggesting that these two-component systems are functionally similar. By real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR, we also observed that this two-component system might influence the expression of heme biosynthetic genes. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate that the Hklep/Rrlep regulatory system is critical for the in vitro growth of L. biflexa, and suggest that this two-component system is involved in a complex mechanism that regulates the heme biosynthetic pathway.

SUBMITTER: Louvel H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2266917 | biostudies-literature | 2008

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Heme rescues a two-component system Leptospira biflexa mutant.

Louvel Hélène H Betton Jean-Michel JM Picardeau Mathieu M

BMC microbiology 20080130

<h4>Background</h4>Heme is typically a major iron source for bacteria, but little is known about how bacteria of the Leptospira genus, composed of both saprophytic and pathogenic species, access heme.<h4>Results</h4>In this study, we analysed a two-component system of the saprophyte Leptospira biflexa. In vitro phosphorylation and site-directed mutagenesis assays showed that Hklep is a histidine kinase which, after autophosphorylation of a conserved histidine, transfers the phosphate to an essen ...[more]

PMID: 18234085

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Project description:The response regulator HrrA belonging to the HrrSA two-component system (previously named CgtSR11) is known to be repressed by the global iron-dependent regulator DtxR in Corynebacterium glutamicum. Sequence analysis indicated an involvement of the HrrSA system in heme-dependent gene expression. Growth experiments revealed that the non-pathogenic soil bacterium C. glutamicum is able to use hemin or hemoglobin as sole iron source. In DNA microarray analyses a putative operon encoding the hemin-binding protein HtaA and the putative hemin ABC transporter HmuTUV showed a strong upregulation in heme-grown cells. Deletion of the hmu operon clearly affects heme utilization, but does not completely abolish growth on heme or hemoglobin. As a central part of this study, we investigated the regulon of the response regulator HrrA via comparative transcriptome analysis of a hrrA deletion mutant and C. glutamicum wild type in combination with DNA-protein interaction studies with purified HrrA protein. Our data provide evidence for a heme-dependent transcriptional activation of heme oxygenase (hmuO), an enzyme involved in the utilization of heme as iron source. Besides hmuO, HrrA was shown to activate the expression of heme-containing components of the respiratory chain, namely ctaD and the ctaE-qcrCAB operon encoding subunits I and III of cytochrome aa3 oxidase and three subunits of the cytochrome bc1 complex. Furthermore, HrrA represses almost all genes involved in heme biosynthesis, including glutamyl-tRNA reductase (hemA), uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase (hemE), and ferrochelatase (hemH). Thus, our data clearly emphasize a central role of the HrrSA system in the control of heme homeostasis in C. glutamicum. Three biological replicates of each experiment were performed. Experiment 1: Transcriptome comparison of wild type grown und FeSO4 or heme as iron source; Exp. 2: WT vs. hrrA deletion mutant grown on FeSO4; Exp. 3: WT vs. hrrA mutant grown on heme. For analysis via DNA microarraysose RNA was isolated from exponentially growing cells cultivated in CgXII medium containing glucose as carbon source and either 2.5 uM FeSO4 or 2.5 uM heme as iron source.

Dataset Information

Heme rescues a two-component system Leptospira biflexa mutant.

Publications

Heme rescues a two-component system Leptospira biflexa mutant.

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