Role of Corynebacterium glutamicum sprA encoding a serine protease in glxR-mediated global gene regulation

PLoS One. 2014 Apr 1;9(4):e93587. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093587. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

The global regulator glxR of Corynebacterium glutamicum is involved in many cellular activities. Considering its role, the GlxR protein likely interacts with other proteins to obtain, maintain, and control its activity. To isolate proteins interacting with GlxR, we used a two-hybrid system with GlxR as the bait. Subsequently, the partner, a subtilisin-like serine protease, was isolated from a C. glutamicum genomic library. Unlike glxR, which showed constitutive expression, the expression of sprA, encoding a serine protease, was maximal in the log phase. Purified His6-SprA protein underwent self-proteolysis and proteolyzed purified GlxR. The proteolytic action of SprA on GlxR was not observed in the presence of cyclic adenosine monophosphate, which modulates GlxR activity. The C. glutamicum sprA deletion mutant (ΔsprA) and sprA-overexpressing (P180-sprA) strains showed reduced growth. The activity of isocitrate dehydrogenase (a tricarboxylic acid cycle enzyme) in these strains decreased to 30-50% of that in the wild-type strain. In the P180-sprA strain, proteins involved in diverse cellular functions such as energy and carbon metabolism (NCgl2809), nitrogen metabolism (NCgl0049), methylation reactions (NCgl0719), and peptidoglycan biosynthesis (NCgl1267), as well as stress, starvation, and survival (NCgl0938) were affected and showed decreased transcription. Taken together, these data suggest that SprA, as a serine protease, performs a novel regulatory role not only in glxR-mediated gene expression but also in other areas of cell physiology. In addition, the tight control of SprA and GlxR availability may indicate their importance in global gene regulation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics*
  • Corynebacterium glutamicum / enzymology
  • Corynebacterium glutamicum / genetics*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial*
  • Glucose / genetics
  • Glucose / metabolism
  • Proteolysis
  • Repressor Proteins / genetics*
  • Serine Proteases / genetics*
  • Serine Proteases / metabolism
  • Transcription, Genetic*

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins
  • Repressor Proteins
  • Serine Proteases
  • Glucose

Grants and funding

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2013R1A1A4A01004556) (URL: http://nrf.re.kr). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.