Depletion of phosphatidylethanolamine affects secretion of Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase and its transcriptional expression.

In this report we demonstrate that depletion of the major phospholipid phosphatidylethanolamine, a single non-bilayer forming phospholipid of Escherichia coli, significantly reduces the secretion efficiency of alkaline phosphatase in vivo. Secretion, however, is correlated with the content in membranes of cardiolipin, which in combination with selected divalent cations has a strong tendency to adopt a non-bilayer state indicating the possible involvement of lipid polymorphism in efficient protein secretion. Depletion of this zwitterionic phospholipid also inhibits expression of the protein controlled by the endogenous P(PHO) promoter but not the P(BAD) promoter, which is suggested to be due to the effect of unbalanced phospholipid composition on the orthophosphate signal transduction system (Pho regulon) through an effect on its membrane bound sensor.

Study of interaction of export initiation domain of Escherichia coli mature alkaline phosphatase with membrane phospholipids during secretion.

The efficiency of secretion of alkaline phosphatase from Escherichia coli depending on the primary structure of its N-terminal region and the content of zwitterionic phospholipid phosphatidylethanolamine and anionic phospholipids in membranes has been studied in this work to establish the peculiarities of interaction of mature protein during its secretion with membrane phospholipids. It has been shown that the effect of phosphatidylethanolamine but not anionic phospholipids on the efficiency of alkaline phosphatase secretion is determined by the primary structure of its N-terminal region. The absence of phosphatidylethanolamine appreciably reduces the efficiency of secretion of wild type alkaline phosphatase and its mutant forms with amino acid substitutions in positions +5+6 and +13+14. In contrast, secretion of the protein withamino acid substitutions in positions +2+3, significantly decreased as a result of such mutation, in the presence of phosphatidylethanolamine, reaches the level of wild type protein secretion in the absence of phosphatidylethanolamine. The results suggest an interaction of the N-terminal region of the mature protein under its translocation across the membrane with phosphatidylethanolamine.

Effect of export-specific cytoplasmic chaperone, protein SecB, on secretion of Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase.

The efficiency of secretion of Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase depends on the presence in cells of a cytoplasmic chaperone--protein SecB. Secretion increases in the presence of this chaperone at 30 degrees C, which is the most favorable for the interaction of SecB with the export-initiation domain found previously in the N-terminal region of the mature enzyme. This interaction most likely occurs in the region of the export domain, which is located close to the signal peptide and in complex with a translocational ATPase--protein SecA.

The primary structure of the N-terminal region of mature alkaline phosphatase is critical for secretion and function of the enzyme.

The export signal has been assumed to be localized not only in the signal peptide of a secreted protein precursor, but also in the N-terminal region of the mature polypeptide chain. Mutant alkaline phosphatases with amino acid substitutions of two positively charged residues (Lys or Arg) in this region at different distances from the signal peptide have been studied to test this assumption. The efficiency of secretion has been shown to decrease in mutant proteins with amino acid substitutions in the region of 16-18 amino acid residues; the closer to the signal peptide is the substitution, the greater is the decrease. A change in the primary structure of the N-terminal domain results also in an increase in the Michaelis constant, which is greater the farther is the amino acid substitution from the signal peptide, suggesting a change in the enzyme function as well.

The net charge of the first 18 residues of the mature sequence affects protein translocation across the cytoplasmic membrane of gram-negative bacteria.

This statistical study shows that in proteins of gram-negative bacteria exported by the Sec-dependent pathway, the first 14 to 18 residues of the mature sequences have the highest deviation between the observed and expected net charge distributions. Moreover, almost all sequences have either neutral or negative net charge in this region. This rule is restricted to gram-negative bacteria, since neither eukaryotic nor gram-positive bacterial exported proteins have this charge bias. Subsequent experiments performed with a series of Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase mutants confirmed that this charge bias is associated with protein translocation across the cytoplasmic membrane. Two consecutive basic residues inhibit translocation effectively when placed within the first 14 residues of the mature protein but not when placed in positions 19 and 20. The sensitivity to arginine partially reappeared again 30 residues away from the signal sequence. These data provide new insight into the mechanism of protein export in gram-negative bacteria and lead to practical recommendations for successful secretion of hybrid proteins.

Dependence of prePhoA-phospholipid interaction in vivo and in vitro on charge of signal peptide N-terminus and content of anionic phospholipids in membranes.

Replacement of the positively charged signal peptide with neutral or negatively charged peptides due to substitution of Lys(-20) in the N-terminal region of the signal peptide leads to decreases in the rate of prePhoA membrane translocation in vivo and in the efficiency of prePhoA insertion into liposomes in vitro. The effect of anionic phospholipids on prePhoA insertion into model membranes is determined by the signal peptide N-terminus charge, while the dependence of prePhoA translocation across the cytoplasmic membrane in vivo is not, under the studied variations in the content of anionic phospholipids. This is evidence of the possibility of direct electrostatic interaction between the signal peptide N-terminus and anionic phospholipids, which in vivo, however, seems to involve some proteins of the Sec machinery.

[Permeability of the Escherichia coli outer membrane for ethidium ions and periplasmic alkaline phosphatase during increased synthesis of it]. / Pronitsaemost' vneshnei membrany Escherichia coli dlia ionov étidiia i periplazmennoi shchelochnoi fosfatazy pri ee povyshenoom sinteze.

During augmented synthesis of periplasmic alkaline phosphatase by various strains of Escherichia coli, the outer membrane of bacterial cells becomes permeable for both the enzyme and ethidium ions which do not generally penetrate inside the cells of gram-negative bacteria. In the absence of the lipoprotein in the outer membrane, its permeability for these compounds as well as its sensitivity to membranotropic agents increases, thus testifying to the influence of the lipoprotein upon certain properties of the outer membrane. A competitive interaction was found between the lipoprotein and lipopolysaccharide content in the outer membrane and their content and alkaline phosphatase secretion into the external medium. It is suggested that increased permeability of the E. coli outer membrane during augmented synthesis of the secreted protein is due to impaired biogenesis of membrane components.