In vivo mutational characterization of DndE involved in DNA phosphorothioate modification

PLoS One. 2014 Sep 30;9(9):e107981. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0107981. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

DNA phosphorothioate (PT) modification is a recently identified epigenetic modification that occurs in the sugar-phosphate backbone of prokaryotic DNA. Previous studies have demonstrated that DNA PT modification is governed by the five DndABCDE proteins in a sequence-selective and RP stereo-specific manner. Bacteria may have acquired this physiological modification along with dndFGH as a restriction-modification system. However, little is known about the biological function of Dnd proteins, especially the smallest protein, DndE, in the PT modification pathway. DndE was reported to be a DNA-binding protein with a preference for nicked dsDNA in vitro; the binding of DndE to DNA occurs via six positively charged lysine residues on its surface. The substitution of these key lysine residues significantly decreased the DNA binding affinities of DndE proteins to undetectable levels. In this study, we conducted site-directed mutagenesis of dndE on a plasmid and measured DNA PT modifications under physiological conditions by mass spectrometry. We observed distinctive differences from the in vitro binding assays. Several mutants with lysine residues mutated to alanine decreased the total frequency of PT modifications, but none of the mutants completely eliminated PT modification. Our results suggest that the nicked dsDNA-binding capacity of DndE may not be crucial for PT modification and/or that DndE may have other biological functions in addition to binding to dsDNA.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alanine / metabolism
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics*
  • Bacterial Proteins / metabolism
  • DNA / genetics
  • DNA / metabolism
  • DNA, Bacterial / genetics*
  • DNA, Bacterial / metabolism
  • Epigenesis, Genetic
  • Escherichia coli / genetics*
  • Escherichia coli / metabolism
  • Lysine / metabolism
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mutagenesis, Site-Directed
  • Phosphates / metabolism
  • Phosphorothioate Oligonucleotides / chemistry
  • Phosphorothioate Oligonucleotides / metabolism*
  • Plasmids / chemistry
  • Plasmids / metabolism
  • Salmonella enterica / genetics*
  • Salmonella enterica / metabolism

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins
  • DNA, Bacterial
  • Phosphates
  • Phosphorothioate Oligonucleotides
  • DNA
  • Lysine
  • Alanine
  • thiophosphoric acid

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the 973 programs of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2012CB721004, 2013CB734003), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31170049, 31300038), Foundation for the Author of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of China, the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University, Hubei Province's Outstanding Medical Academic Leader program, the Scientific Research Funds of the Education Department of Jiangxi Province, China (GJJ13257). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.