RESUMO
Bacteria utilize various strategies to prevent internal dehydration during hypertonic stress. A common approach to countering the effects of the stress is to import compatible solutes such as glycine betaine, leading to simultaneous passive water fluxes following the osmotic gradient. OpuA from Lactococcus lactis is a type I ABC-importer that uses two substrate-binding domains (SBDs) to capture extracellular glycine betaine and deliver the substrate to the transmembrane domains for subsequent transport. OpuA senses osmotic stress via changes in the internal ionic strength and is furthermore regulated by the 2nd messenger cyclic-di-AMP. We now show, by means of solution-based single-molecule FRET and analysis with multi-parameter photon-by-photon hidden Markov modeling, that the SBDs transiently interact in an ionic strength-dependent manner. The smFRET data are in accordance with the apparent cooperativity in transport and supported by new cryo-EM data of OpuA. We propose that the physical interactions between SBDs and cooperativity in substrate delivery are part of the transport mechanism.
Assuntos
Transportadores de Cassetes de Ligação de ATP , Proteínas de Bactérias , Lactococcus lactis , Transportadores de Cassetes de Ligação de ATP/metabolismo , Transportadores de Cassetes de Ligação de ATP/química , Transportadores de Cassetes de Ligação de ATP/genética , Proteínas de Bactérias/metabolismo , Proteínas de Bactérias/química , Betaína/metabolismo , Microscopia Crioeletrônica , Transferência Ressonante de Energia de Fluorescência , Lactococcus lactis/metabolismo , Concentração Osmolar , Osmorregulação , Ligação Proteica , Domínios Proteicos , Imagem Individual de MoléculaRESUMO
(Micro)organisms are exposed to fluctuating environmental conditions, and adaptation to stress is essential for survival. Increased osmolality (hypertonicity) causes outflow of water and loss of turgor and is dangerous if the cell is not capable of rapidly restoring its volume. The osmoregulatory adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette transporter OpuA restores the cell volume by accumulating large amounts of compatible solute. OpuA is gated by ionic strength and inhibited by the second messenger cyclic-di-AMP, a molecule recently shown to affect many cellular processes. Despite the master regulatory role of cyclic-di-AMP, structural and functional insights into how the second messenger regulates (transport) proteins on the molecular level are lacking. Here, we present high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy structures of OpuA and in vitro activity assays that show how the osmoregulator OpuA is activated by high ionic strength and how cyclic-di-AMP acts as a backstop to prevent unbridled uptake of compatible solutes.