NleB2 from enteropathogenic Escherichia coli is a novel arginine-glucose transferase effector

PLoS Pathog. 2021 Jun 16;17(6):e1009658. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009658. eCollection 2021 Jun.

Abstract

During infection, enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) directly manipulate various aspects of host cell function through the translocation of type III secretion system (T3SS) effector proteins directly into the host cell. Many T3SS effector proteins are enzymes that mediate post-translational modifications of host proteins, such as the glycosyltransferase NleB1, which transfers a single N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) to arginine residues, creating an Arg-GlcNAc linkage. NleB1 glycosylates death-domain containing proteins including FADD, TRADD and RIPK1 to block host cell death. The NleB1 paralogue, NleB2, is found in many EPEC and EHEC strains but to date its enzymatic activity has not been described. Using in vitro glycosylation assays combined with mass spectrometry, we found that NleB2 can utilize multiple sugar donors including UDP-glucose, UDP-GlcNAc and UDP-galactose during glycosylation of the death domain protein, RIPK1. Sugar donor competition assays demonstrated that UDP-glucose was the preferred substrate of NleB2 and peptide sequencing identified the glycosylation site within RIPK1 as Arg603, indicating that NleB2 catalyses arginine glucosylation. We also confirmed that NleB2 catalysed arginine-hexose modification of Flag-RIPK1 during infection of HEK293T cells with EPEC E2348/69. Using site-directed mutagenesis and in vitro glycosylation assays, we identified that residue Ser252 in NleB2 contributes to the specificity of this distinct catalytic activity. Substitution of Ser252 in NleB2 to Gly, or substitution of the corresponding Gly255 in NleB1 to Ser switches sugar donor preference between UDP-GlcNAc and UDP-glucose. However, this switch did not affect the ability of the NleB variants to inhibit inflammatory or cell death signalling during HeLa cell transfection or EPEC infection. NleB2 is thus the first identified bacterial Arg-glucose transferase that, similar to the NleB1 Arg-GlcNAc transferase, inhibits host protein function by arginine glycosylation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Arginine / metabolism*
  • Cell Line
  • Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli / metabolism*
  • Escherichia coli Proteins / metabolism*
  • Glucose / metabolism*
  • Glycosyltransferases / metabolism*
  • Humans
  • Virulence Factors / metabolism*

Substances

  • Escherichia coli Proteins
  • NleB protein, E coli
  • Virulence Factors
  • Arginine
  • Glycosyltransferases
  • Glucose

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) applications APP1098826 and APP1175976 awarded to ELH and applications APP1100164 and APP1037373 awarded to NES. Salary of NES was supported by APP1037373 and FT200100270. Salary of CG was supported by APP1175976. Salary of JSP was supported by APP1159230. The work was additionally supported by a Victoria Fellowship awarded to CG. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.