Identification of structural and regulatory cell-shape determinants in Haloferax volcanii.

Archaea play indispensable roles in global biogeochemical cycles, yet many crucial cellular processes, including cell-shape determination, are poorly understood. Haloferax volcanii, a model haloarchaeon, forms rods and disks, depending on growth conditions. Here, we used a combination of iterative proteomics, genetics, and live-cell imaging to identify mutants that only form rods or disks. We compared the proteomes of the mutants with wild-type cells across growth phases, thereby distinguishing between protein abundance changes specific to cell shape and those related to growth phases. The results identified a diverse set of proteins, including predicted transporters, transducers, signaling components, and transcriptional regulators, as important for cell-shape determination. Through phenotypic characterization of deletion strains, we established that rod-determining factor A (RdfA) and disk-determining factor A (DdfA) are required for the formation of rods and disks, respectively. We also identified structural proteins, including an actin homolog that plays a role in disk-shape morphogenesis, which we named volactin. Using live-cell imaging, we determined volactin's cellular localization and showed its dynamic polymerization and depolymerization. Our results provide insights into archaeal cell-shape determination, with possible implications for understanding the evolution of cell morphology regulation across domains.

Salactin, a dynamically unstable actin homolog in Haloarchaea.

IMPORTANCE: Protein filaments play important roles in many biological processes. We discovered an actin homolog in halophilic archaea, which we call Salactin. Just like the filaments that segregate DNA in eukaryotes, Salactin grows out of the cell poles towards the middle, and then quickly depolymerizes, a behavior known as dynamic instability. Furthermore, we see that Salactin affects the distribution of DNA in daughter cells when cells are grown in low-phosphate media, suggesting Salactin filaments might be involved in segregating DNA when the cell has only a few copies of the chromosome.

A sweet new set of inducible and constitutive promoters in Haloferax volcanii.

Inducible promoters are one of cellular and molecular biology's most important technical tools. The ability to deplete, replete, and overexpress genes on demand is the foundation of most functional studies. Here, we developed and characterized a new xylose-responsive promoter (Pxyl), the second inducible promoter system for the model haloarcheon Haloferax volcanii. Generating RNA-seq datasets from cultures in the presence of four historically used inducers (arabinose, xylose, maltose, and IPTG), we mapped upregulated genomic regions primarily repressed in the absence of the above inducers. We found a highly upregulated promoter that controls the expression of the xacEA (HVO_B0027-28) operon in the pHV3 chromosome. To characterize this promoter region, we cloned msfGFP (monomeric superfold green fluorescent protein) under the control of two upstream regions into a modified pTA962 vector: the first 250 bp (P250) and the whole 750 bp intergenic fragments (P750). The P250 sequence drove the expression of msfGFP constitutively, and its expression did not respond to the presence or absence of xylose. However, the P750 promoter showed not only to be repressed in the absence of xylose but also expressed higher levels of msfGFP than the previously described inducible promoter PtnaA in the presence of the inducer. Finally, we validated the inducible Pxyl promoter by reproducing morphological phenotypes already described in the literature. By overexpressing the tubulin-like FtsZ1 and FtsZ2, we observed similar but slightly more pronounced morphological defects than the tryptophan-inducible promoter PtnaA. FtsZ1 overexpression created larger, deformed cells, whereas cells overexpressing FtsZ2 were smaller but mostly retained their shape. In summary, this work contributes a new xylose-inducible promoter that could be used simultaneously with the well-established PtnaA in functional studies in H. volcanii in the future.

Haloferax volcanii Immersed Liquid Biofilms Develop Independently of Known Biofilm Machineries and Exhibit Rapid Honeycomb Pattern Formation.

The ability to form biofilms is shared by many microorganisms, including archaea. Cells in a biofilm are encased in extracellular polymeric substances that typically include polysaccharides, proteins, and extracellular DNA, conferring protection while providing a structure that allows for optimal nutrient flow. In many bacteria, flagella and evolutionarily conserved type IV pili are required for the formation of biofilms on solid surfaces or floating at the air-liquid interface of liquid media. Similarly, in many archaea it has been demonstrated that type IV pili and, in a subset of these species, archaella are required for biofilm formation on solid surfaces. Additionally, in the model archaeon Haloferax volcanii, chemotaxis and AglB-dependent glycosylation play important roles in this process. H. volcanii also forms immersed biofilms in liquid cultures poured into petri dishes. This study reveals that mutants of this haloarchaeon that interfere with the biosynthesis of type IV pili or archaella, as well as a chemotaxis-targeting transposon and aglB deletion mutants, lack obvious defects in biofilms formed in liquid cultures. Strikingly, we have observed that these liquid-based biofilms are capable of rearrangement into honeycomb-like patterns that rapidly form upon removal of the petri dish lid, a phenomenon that is not dependent on changes in light or oxygen concentration but can be induced by controlled reduction of humidity. Taken together, this study demonstrates that H. volcanii requires novel, unidentified strategies for immersed liquid biofilm formation and also exhibits rapid structural rearrangements.IMPORTANCE This first molecular biological study of archaeal immersed liquid biofilms advances our basic biological understanding of the model archaeon Haloferax volcanii Data gleaned from this study also provide an invaluable foundation for future studies to uncover components required for immersed liquid biofilms in this haloarchaeon and also potentially for liquid biofilm formation in general, which is poorly understood compared to the formation of biofilms on surfaces. Moreover, this first description of rapid honeycomb pattern formation is likely to yield novel insights into the underlying structural architecture of extracellular polymeric substances and cells within immersed liquid biofilms.