Project description:The specificity of the kinase-regulator interaction is driven by a limited set of interfacial residues in each protein that strongly. To identify combinations of these interface residues that are functional and potentially insulated from existing two-component signaling pathways in E. coli, we constructed a dual library of mutants in which the key, coevolving interface residues of a canonical two-component system, PhoQ and PhoP, were randomized. We used NNS codons to randomize six residues in PhoQ and five residues in PhoP, all of which lie at the interface formed by the two proteins in complex and that are critical to determining partner specificity in all two-component signaling pathways. To identify functional combinations of residues, we first grew the library of PhoQ-PhoP variants overnight in medium with low Mg2+, which activates PhoQ. Because cells must phosphorylate PhoP to grow when extracellular Mg2+ is limiting, this step enriches for functional PhoQ-PhoP variants. Variants that survived selection in limiting Mg2+ were then subjected to Sort-Seq, using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) and deep sequencing to quantify the signal responsiveness of variants in the library. To gauge the phosphorylation of PhoP in vivo, we used a fluorescent transcriptional reporter, PmgrB-yfp. In the presence of low extracellular Mg2+, functional PhoQ promotes the phosphorylation of PhoP and the production of YFP, whereas in the presence of high concentrations of Mg2+, PhoQ drives the dephosphorylation of PhoP, limiting the accumulation of YFP). The library was grown in each condition for 6 hours before sorting and sequencing. To identify variants that are signal responsive and drive YFP production specifically in low Mg2+, we sorted cells from each condition into 8 separate bins and deep sequenced the randomized regions of variants collected in each bin. We then calculated the frequency of each variant in each bin to yield the distributions of individual variants in low and high Mg2+, which were fit to Gaussians. From these fits, we assessed the mean level of YFP in each condition and the fold-induction, or signal responsiveness, of each variant detected in the library. The 11 codons / amino acids listed in this dataset refer to codons 12, 14, 15, 18, and 19 in PhoP and codons 284, 288, 289, 292, 302, and 303 in PhoQ, in that order.

Project description:Background Small colony variants (SCVs) are slow-growing bacteria, which often show increased resistance to antibiotics and cause latent or recurrent infections. It is therefore important to understand the mechanisms at the basis of this phenotypic switch. Methodology/Principal findings One SCV (termed PAO-SCV) was isolated, showing high resistance to gentamicin and to the cephalosporine cefotaxime. PAO-SCV was prone to reversion as evidenced by emergence of large colonies with a frequency of 10-5 on media without antibiotics while it was stably maintained in presence of gentamicin. PAO-SCV showed a delayed growth, defective motility, and strongly reduced levels of the quorum sensing Pseudomonas quinolone signal (PQS). Whole genome expression analysis further suggested a multi-layered antibiotic resistance mechanism, including simultaneous over-expression of two drug efflux pumps (MexAB-OprM, MexXY-OprM), the LPS modification operon arnBCADTEF, and the PhoP-PhoQ two-component system. Conversely, the genes for the synthesis of PQS were strongly down-regulated in PAOSCV. Finally, genomic analysis revealed the presence of mutations in phoP and phoQ genes as well as in the mexZ gene encoding a repressor of the mexXY and mexABoprM genes. Only one mutation occurred only in REV, at nucleotide 1020 of the tufA gene, a paralog of tufB, both encoding the elongation factor Tu, causing a change of the rarely used aspartic acid codon GAU to the more common GAC, possibly causing an increase of tufA mRNA translation. High expression of phoP and phoQ was confirmed for the SCV variant while the revertant showed expression levels reduced to wild-type levels. Conclusions By combining data coming from phenotypic, gene expression and proteome analysis, we could demonstrate that resistance to aminoglycosides in one SCV mutant is multifactorial including overexpression of efflux mechanisms, LPS modification and is accompanied by a drastic down-regulation of the Pseudomonas quinolone signal quorum sensing system. We used microarrays to study changes in gene expression during early and late stationary phase of SCV and WT strains. SCV and WT cultures were grown in triplicate until early (24h) and late (48h) stationary phase. RNA was extracted, labelled and hybridised on Affymetrix P. aeruginosa expression microarrays.

Project description:Background Small colony variants (SCVs) are slow-growing bacteria, which often show increased resistance to antibiotics and cause latent or recurrent infections. It is therefore important to understand the mechanisms at the basis of this phenotypic switch. Methodology/Principal findings One SCV (termed PAO-SCV) was isolated, showing high resistance to gentamicin and to the cephalosporine cefotaxime. PAO-SCV was prone to reversion as evidenced by emergence of large colonies with a frequency of 10-5 on media without antibiotics while it was stably maintained in presence of gentamicin. PAO-SCV showed a delayed growth, defective motility, and strongly reduced levels of the quorum sensing Pseudomonas quinolone signal (PQS). Whole genome expression analysis further suggested a multi-layered antibiotic resistance mechanism, including simultaneous over-expression of two drug efflux pumps (MexAB-OprM, MexXY-OprM), the LPS modification operon arnBCADTEF, and the PhoP-PhoQ two-component system. Conversely, the genes for the synthesis of PQS were strongly down-regulated in PAOSCV. Finally, genomic analysis revealed the presence of mutations in phoP and phoQ genes as well as in the mexZ gene encoding a repressor of the mexXY and mexABoprM genes. Only one mutation occurred only in REV, at nucleotide 1020 of the tufA gene, a paralog of tufB, both encoding the elongation factor Tu, causing a change of the rarely used aspartic acid codon GAU to the more common GAC, possibly causing an increase of tufA mRNA translation. High expression of phoP and phoQ was confirmed for the SCV variant while the revertant showed expression levels reduced to wild-type levels. Conclusions By combining data coming from phenotypic, gene expression and proteome analysis, we could demonstrate that resistance to aminoglycosides in one SCV mutant is multifactorial including overexpression of efflux mechanisms, LPS modification and is accompanied by a drastic down-regulation of the Pseudomonas quinolone signal quorum sensing system. We used microarrays to study changes in gene expression during early and late stationary phase of SCV and WT strains.

Project description:In many Gram-negative bacteria, the stress sigma factor of RNA polymerase, σS/RpoS, remodels global gene expression to reshape the physiology of quiescent cells and ensure their survival under non-optimal growth conditions. In the foodborne pathogen Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, σS is also required for biofilm formation and virulence. We have recently shown that a ΔrpoS mutation affects the magnesium content of Salmonella and expression of the primary Mg2+-transporter CorA. The other two Mg2+-transporters of Salmonella are encoded by the PhoP-activated mgtA and mgtB genes expressed under magnesium starvation, whereas the corA gene is expressed constitutively. The σS control of corA prompted us to evaluate the impact CorA in quiescent Salmonella cells, by using global and analytical proteomic analyses and physiological assays. The ΔcorA mutation conferred a competitive disadvantage to exit from stationary phase, and slightly impaired motility, but had no effect on total and free cellular magnesium contents. In contrast to the wild type strain, the ΔcorA mutant produced MgtA, but not MgtB, in the presence of high extracellular magnesium concentration. Under these conditions, MgtA production in the ΔcorA mutant did not require PhoP and, consistently, a ΔmgtA, but not a ΔphoP, mutation slightly reduced the magnesium content of the ΔcorA mutant. Nevertheless, the ΔphoP mutation strongly impaired growth and motility, in the absence of CorA only and independently of the extracellular magnesium concentration, unraveling the importance of PhoP-dependent functions in the absence of CorA. Under these conditions, several proteins involved in flagella formation, chemotaxis and secretion were affected by the ΔcorA and ΔphoP mutations in combination, but not alone. Altogether, our data pinpoint a regulatory network, where the absence of CorA is sensed and its physiological consequences alleviated by induction of MgtA- and PhoP- dependent compensatory mechanisms.

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Engineering orthogonal signaling pathways reveals the sparse distribtion of protein protein interactions in sequence space [combinatorial_library_sort_seq]

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