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Molecular dissection of arginyltransferases guided by similarity to bacterial peptidoglycan synthases.

Post-translational protein arginylation is essential for cardiovascular development and angiogenesis in mice and is mediated by arginyl-transfer RNA-protein transferases Ate1-a functionally conserved but poorly understood class of enzymes. Here, we used sequence analysis to detect the evolutionary relationship between the Ate1 family and bacterial FemABX family of aminoacyl-tRNA-peptide transferases, and to predict the functionally important residues in arginyltransferases, which were then used to construct a panel of mutants for further molecular dissection of mouse Ate1. Point mutations of the residues in the predicted regions of functional importance resulted in changes in enzymatic activity, including complete inactivation of mouse Ate1; other mutations altered its substrate specificity. Our results provide the first insights into the mechanisms of Ate1-mediated arginyl transfer reaction and substrate recognition, and define a new protein superfamily called Dupli-GNAT to reflect its origin by the duplication of the GNAT acetyltransferase domain.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Post-translational arginylation of ornithine decarboxylase from rat hepatocytes.

Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) was purified 6500-fold from NMRI mouse kidneys under conditions designed to inhibit degradation by proteinases. The enzyme was homogeneous by SDS/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis, and the specific activity was among the highest reported. The yield was 70%. A monoclonal antibody against this preparation was generated and used in studies to investigate the half-life of ODC in cultured rat hepatocytes labelled with [35S]methionine. This value was 39 +/- 4 min and was unchanged when either NH4Cl (as a lysosomotropic agent) or leupeptin (as a lysosomal proteinase inhibitor) was added to the culture medium. Thus the intracellular turnover of ODC in cultured hepatocytes occurs mainly in extra-lysosomal compartments. Arginylation of rat ODC was investigated in vitro by incubation with L-[3H]arginyl-tRNA, and the incorporation of the label was compared with that of total cytosolic proteins. Arginylated ODC had a specific radioactivity 8600 times that of the bulk of cytosolic protein. Edman degradation of this ODC showed that the post-translational arginylation occurred only at the alpha-amino end of the enzyme. The inhibitor of arginyl-tRNA:protein arginyltransferase (EC 2.3.2.8), L-glutamyl-L-valyl-L-phenylalanine, increased the half-life of ODC in cultured hepatocytes from 39 min to more than 90 min. The possible significance of the preferential post-translational arginylation of ornithine decarboxylase to its rapid turnover is discussed.

Animals↗

Modulation of lambda integrase synthesis by rare arginine tRNA.

Lambda's int gene contains an anomalously high frequency of the rare arginine codons AGA and AGG when compared to genes of Escherichia coli or to the rest of phage lambda. These are the least frequent codons in genes of E. coli and are recognized by the rarest tRNAs. The presence of these codons reduces the translation rate and, depending on the context, this can strongly modulate translational efficiency by a variety of mechanisms. In this study, we show that expression of the natural int gene may also be modulated by rare arginine codon usage, and we explore this mechanism.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

The pair of arginine codons AGA AGG close to the initiation codon of the lambda int gene inhibits cell growth and protein synthesis by accumulating peptidyl-tRNAArg4.

To analyse the mechanism by which rare codons near the initiation codon inhibit cell growth and protein synthesis, we used the bacteriophage lambda int gene or early codon substitution derivatives. The lambda int gene has a high frequency of rare ATA, AGA and AGG codons; two of them (AGA AGG) located at positions 3 and 4 of the int open reading frame (ORF). Escherichia coli pth (rap) cells, which are defective in peptidyl-tRNA hydrolase (Pth) activity, are more susceptible to the inhibitory effects of int expression as compared with wild-type cells. Cell growth and Int protein synthesis were enhanced by overexpression of Pth and tRNAArg4 cognate to AGG and AGA but not of tRNAIle2a specific for ATA. The increase of Int protein synthesis also takes place when the rare arginine codons AGA and AGG at positions 3 and 4 are changed to common arginine CGT or lysine AAA codons but not to rare isoleucine ATA codons. In addition, overexpression of int in Pth defective cells provokes accumulation of peptidyl-tRNAArg4 in the soluble fraction. Therefore, cell growth and Int synthesis inhibition may be due to ribosome stalling and premature release of peptidyl-tRNAArg4 from the ribosome at the rare arginine codons of the first tandem, which leads to cell starvation for the specific tRNA.

Arginine↗

Listeria-based cancer vaccines that segregate immunogenicity from toxicity.

The facultative intracellular bacterium Listeria monocytogenes is being developed as a cancer vaccine platform because of its ability to induce potent innate and adaptive immunity. For successful clinical application, it is essential to develop a Listeria platform strain that is safe yet retains the potency of vaccines based on wild-type bacteria. Here, we report the development of a recombinant live-attenuated vaccine platform strain that retains the potency of the fully virulent pathogen, combined with a >1,000-fold reduction in toxicity, as compared with wild-type Listeria. By selectively deleting two virulence factors, ActA (DeltaactA) and Internalin B (DeltainlB), the immunopotency of Listeria was maintained and its toxicity was diminished in vivo, largely by blocking the direct internalin B-mediated infection of nonphagocytic cells, such as hepatocytes, and the indirect ActA-mediated infection by cell-to-cell spread from adjacent phagocytic cells. In contrast, infection of phagocytic cells was not affected, leaving intact the ability of Listeria to stimulate innate immunity and to induce antigenspecific cellular responses. Listeria DeltaactA/DeltainlB-based vaccines were rapidly cleared from mice after immunization and induced potent and durable effector and memory T-cell responses with no measurable liver toxicity. Therapeutic vaccination of BALB/c mice bearing murine CT26 colon tumor lung metastases or palpable s.c. tumors (>100 mm(3)) with recombinant Listeria DeltaactA/DeltainlB expressing an endogenous tumor antigen resulted in breaking of self-tolerance and long-term survival. We propose that recombinant Listeria DeltaactA/DeltainlB expressing human tumor-associated antigens represents an attractive therapeutic strategy for further development and testing in human clinical trials.

Animals↗

Zinc transfer from transcription factor IIIA fingers to thionein clusters.

The rapid induction of thionein (apometallothionein) by many endogenous stimuli such as steroid hormones, cytokines, and second messengers suggests that this cysteine-rich, metal binding protein participates in an as yet undefined role in cellular regulatory processes. This study demonstrates with DNA and RNA binding assays and in vitro transcription measurements that thionein suppresses the binding of the Xenopus laevis zinc finger transcription factor IIIA (TFIIIA) to 5S RNA and to the 5S RNA gene and abrogates the capacity of TFIIIA to initiate the RNA polymerase III-catalyzed synthesis of 5S RNA. The effect is reversed by the addition of zinc and is not observed in the TFIIIA-independent transcription of a tRNA gene by the same RNA polymerase. In view of the strong tendency of thionein to complex posttransition metals such as zinc, one effect of its enhanced synthesis in vivo could be to reduce the intracellular disposability of zinc and thus modulate the actions of zinc-dependent enzymes and proteins, most notably those of the zinc finger transcription factors.

Animals↗

Spermidine deficiency increases +1 ribosomal frameshifting efficiency and inhibits Ty1 retrotransposition in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Polyamines have been implicated in nucleic acid-related functions and in protein biosynthesis. RNA sequences that specifically direct ribosomes to shift reading frame in the -1 and +1 directions may be used to probe the mechanisms controlling translational fidelity. We examined the effects of spermidine on translational fidelity by an in vivo assay in which changes in beta-galactosidase activity are dependent on yeast retrovirus Ty +1 and yeast double-stranded RNA virus L-A -1 ribosomal frameshifting signals. In spe2 delta mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which cannot make spermidine as a result of a deletion in the SPE2 gene, there is a marked elevation in +1 but no change in -1 ribosomal frameshifting. The increase in +1 ribosomal frameshifting efficiency is accompanied by a striking decrease in Ty1 retrotransposition.

Adenosylmethionine Decarboxylase↗

Transcribing of Escherichia coli genes with mutant T7 RNA polymerases: stability of lacZ mRNA inversely correlates with polymerase speed.

When in Escherichia coli the host RNA polymerase is replaced by the 8-fold faster bacteriophage T7 enzyme for transcription of the lacZ gene, the beta-galactosidase yield per transcript drops as a result of transcript destabilization. We have measured the beta-galactosidase yield per transcript from T7 RNA polymerase mutants that exhibit a reduced elongation speed in vitro. Aside from very slow mutants that were not sufficiently processive to transcribe the lacZ gene, the lower the polymerase speed, the higher the beta-galactosidase yield per transcript. In particular, a mutant which was 2.7-fold slower than the wild-type enzyme yielded 3.4- to 4.6-fold more beta-galactosidase per transcript. These differences in yield vanished in the presence of the rne-50 mutation and therefore reflect the unequal sensitivity of the transcripts to RNase E. We propose that the instability of the T7 RNA polymerase transcripts stems from the unmasking of an RNase E-sensitive site(s) between the polymerase and the leading ribosome: the faster the polymerase, the longer the lag between the synthesis of this site(s) and its shielding by ribosomes, and the lower the transcript stability.

Blotting, Northern↗

Cleavage properties of an archaeal site-specific recombinase, the SSV1 integrase.

SSV1 is a virus infecting the extremely thermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus shibatae. The viral-encoded integrase is responsible for site-specific integration of SSV1 into its host genome. The recombinant enzyme was expressed in Escherichia coli, purified to homogeneity, and its biochemical properties investigated in vitro. We show that the SSV1 integrase belongs to the tyrosine recombinases family and that Tyr(314) is involved in the formation of a 3'-phosphotyrosine intermediate. The integrase cleaves both strands of a synthetic substrate in a temperature-dependent reaction, the cleavage efficiency increasing with temperature. A discontinuity was observed in the Arrhenius plot above 50 degrees C, suggesting that a conformational transition may occur in the integrase at this temperature. Analysis of cleavage time course suggested that noncovalent binding of the integrase to its substrate is rate-limiting in the cleavage reaction. The cleavage positions were localized on each side of the anticodon loop of the tRNA gene where SSV1 integration takes place. Finally, the SSV1 integrase is able to cut substrates harboring mismatches in the binding site. For the cleavage step, the chemical nature of the base in position -1 of cleavage seems to be more important than its pairing to the opposite strand.

Arabinose↗

L-arginine recognition by yeast arginyl-tRNA synthetase.

The crystal structure of arginyl-tRNA synthetase (ArgRS) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a class I aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (aaRS), with L-arginine bound to the active site has been solved at 2.75 A resolution and refined to a crystallographic R-factor of 19.7%. ArgRS is composed predominantly of alpha-helices and can be divided into five domains, including the class I-specific active site. The N-terminal domain shows striking similarity to some completely unrelated proteins and defines a module which should participate in specific tRNA recognition. The C-terminal domain, which is the putative anticodon-binding module, displays an all-alpha-helix fold highly similar to that of Escherichia coli methionyl-tRNA synthetase. While ArgRS requires tRNAArg for the first step of the aminoacylation reaction, the results show that its presence is not a prerequisite for L-arginine binding. All H-bond-forming capability of L-arginine is used by the protein for the specific recognition. The guanidinium group forms two salt bridge interactions with two acidic residues, and one H-bond with a tyrosine residue; these three residues are strictly conserved in all ArgRS sequences. This tyrosine is also conserved in other class I aaRS active sites but plays several functional roles. The ArgRS structure allows the definition of a new framework for sequence alignments and subclass definition in class I aaRSs.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Three conserved members of the RNase D family have unique and overlapping functions in the processing of 5S, 5.8S, U4, U5, RNase MRP and RNase P RNAs in yeast.

The biogenesis of a number of RNA species in eukaryotic cells requires 3' processing. To determine the enzymes responsible for these trimming events, we created yeast strains lacking specific 3' to 5' exonucleases. In this work, we describe the analysis of three members of the RNase D family of exonucleases (Rex1p, Rex2p and Rex3p). This work led to three important conclusions. First, each of these exonucleases is required for the processing of distinct RNAs. Specifically, Rex1p, Rex2p and Rex3p are required for 5S rRNA, U4 snRNA and MRP RNA trimming, respectively. Secondly, some 3' exonucleases are redundant with other exonucleases. Specifically, Rex1p and Rex2p function redundantly in 5.8S rRNA maturation, Rex1p, Rex2p and Rex3p are redundant for the processing of U5 snRNA and RNase P RNA, and Rex1p and the exonuclease Rrp6p have an unknown redundant essential function. Thirdly, the demonstration that the Rex proteins can affect reactions that have been attributed previously to the exosome complex indicates that an apparently simple processing step can be surprisingly complex with multiple exonucleases working sequentially in the same pathway.

Conserved Sequence↗

Ty element-induced temperature-sensitive mutations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Temperature-sensitive mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were isolated by insertional mutagenesis using the HIS3 marked retrotransposon TyH3HIS3. In such mutants, the TyHIS3 insertions are expected to identify loci which encode genes essential for cell growth at high temperatures but dispensable at low temperatures. Five mutations were isolated and named hit for high temperature growth. The hit1-1 mutation was located on chromosome X and conferred the pet phenotype. Two hit2 mutations, hit2-1 and hit2-2, were located on chromosome III and caused the deletion of the PET18 locus which has been shown to encode a gene required for growth at high temperatures. The hit3-1 mutation was located on chromosome VI and affected the CDC26 gene. The hit4-1 mutation was located on chromosome XIII. These hit mutations were analyzed in an attempt to identify novel genes involved in the heat shock response. The hit1-1 mutation caused a defect in synthesis of a 74-kD heat shock protein. Western blot analysis revealed that the heat shock protein corresponded to the SSC1 protein, a member of the yeast hsp70 family. In the hit1-1 mutant, the TyHIS3 insertion caused a deletion of a 3-kb DNA segment between the delta 1 and delta 4 sequences near the SUP4 locus. The 1031-bp wild-type HIT1 DNA which contained an open reading frame encoding a protein of 164 amino acids and the AGG arginine tRNA gene complemented all hit1-1 mutant phenotypes, indicating that the mutant phenotypes were caused by the deletion of these genes. The pleiotropy of the HIT1 locus was analyzed by constructing a disruption mutation of each gene in vitro and transplacing it to the chromosome. This analysis revealed that the HIT1 gene essential for growth at high temperatures encodes the 164-amino acid protein. The arginine tRNA gene, named HSX1, is essential for growth on a nonfermentable carbon source at high temperatures and for synthesis of the SSC1 heat shock protein.

Base Sequence↗

Transfer RNA genes frequently serve as integration sites for prokaryotic genetic elements.

The DNA sequences were determined at the boundaries of the integrated copy of the archaebacterial genetic element SSV1. A 44 bp sequence present as a single copy on the 15.5 kb circular SSV1 DNA flanked the integrated copy as a direct DNA sequence repeat, suggesting that SSV1 integration occurred by recombination between this 44 bp SSV1 sequence and an identical sequence on the bacterial chromosome. At the left attachment site, a region encompassing the 44 bp attachment core sequence and the 31 nucleotides upstream of it displayed all characteristics expected for an arginine tRNA gene. An analysis of published attachment site sequences of other systems revealed that tRNA genes also constitute the bacterial attachment site in the case of three temperate phages and two transmissible plasmids in eubacteria, indicating a widespread occurrence of tRNA genes as integration target sites. This finding may be important for the understanding of mechanisms and evolution of site-specific recombination.

Archaea↗

3' truncated tRNAArg is essential for in vitro specific cleavage of partially synthesized mouse 18S rRNA.

In vitro synthesized 5' portions of mouse 18S rRNA are cleaved efficiently at a specific site in partially purified extracts of mouse FM3A cells and several mouse tissues. This activity is composed of both protein and RNA, and can be reconstituted with the protein component in micrococcal nuclease-treated extracts and the RNA component in phenol-treated ones. The RNA component of about 65 nucleotides with the complementing activity was purified from total RNA in the partially purified FM3A cell extracts by polyacrylamide gel electrophoreses. Chemical sequencing of this RNA elucidated that it is tRNAArg lacking nine nucleotides from its 3' terminus. Ribonuclease H treatment directed by deoxyoligonucleotides complementary to tRNAArg completely abolishes the cleavage activity, supporting the above conclusion.

Animals↗