Structural reorganization of the bacterial cell-division protein FtsZ from Staphylococcus aureus.

FtsZ is a key molecule in bacterial cell division. In the presence of GTP, it polymerizes into tubulin-like protofilaments by head-to-tail association. Protofilaments of FtsZ seem to adopt a straight or a curved conformation in relation to the bound nucleotide. However, although several bacterial and archaeal FtsZ structures have been determined, all of the structures reported previously are considered to have a curved conformation. In this study, structures of FtsZ from Staphylococcus aureus (SaFtsZ) were determined in apo, GDP-bound and inhibitor-complex forms and it was found that SaFtsZ undergoes marked conformational changes. The accumulated evidence suggests that the GDP-bound structure has the features of the straight form. The structural change between the curved and straight forms shows intriguing similarity to the eukaryotic cytoskeletal protein tubulin. Furthermore, the structure of the apo form showed an unexpectedly large conformational change in the core region. FtsZ has also been recognized as a novel target for antibacterial drugs. The structure of the complex with the inhibitor PC190723, which has potent and selective antistaphylococcal activity, indicated that the inhibitor binds at the cleft between the two subdomains.

Two distinct regions in Staphylococcus aureus GatCAB guarantee accurate tRNA recognition.

In many prokaryotes the biosynthesis of the amide aminoacyl-tRNAs, Gln-tRNA(Gln) and Asn-tRNA(Asn), proceeds by an indirect route in which mischarged Glu-tRNA(Gln) or Asp-tRNA(Asn) is amidated to the correct aminoacyl-tRNA catalyzed by a tRNA-dependent amidotransferase (AdT). Two types of AdTs exist: bacteria, archaea and organelles possess heterotrimeric GatCAB, while heterodimeric GatDE occurs exclusively in archaea. Bacterial GatCAB and GatDE recognize the first base pair of the acceptor stem and the D-loop of their tRNA substrates, while archaeal GatCAB recognizes the tertiary core of the tRNA, but not the first base pair. Here, we present the crystal structure of the full-length Staphylococcus aureus GatCAB. Its GatB tail domain possesses a conserved Lys rich motif that is situated close to the variable loop in a GatCAB:tRNA(Gln) docking model. This motif is also conserved in the tail domain of archaeal GatCAB, suggesting this basic region may recognize the tRNA variable loop to discriminate Asp-tRNA(Asn) from Asp-tRNA(Asp) in archaea. Furthermore, we identified a 3(10) turn in GatB that permits the bacterial GatCAB to distinguish a U1-A72 base pair from a G1-C72 pair; the absence of this element in archaeal GatCAB enables the latter enzyme to recognize aminoacyl-tRNAs with G1-C72 base pairs.