An acetyltranferase moonlights as a regulator of the RNA binding repertoire of the RNA chaperone Hfq in Escherichia coli.

Bacterial small RNAs (sRNAs) regulate gene expression by base-pairing with their target mRNAs. In Escherichia coli and many other bacteria, this process is dependent on the RNA chaperone Hfq, a mediator for sRNA-mRNA annealing. YhbS (renamed here as HqbA), a putative Gcn5-related N-acetyltransferase (GNAT), was previously identified as a silencer of sRNA signaling in a genomic library screen. Here, we studied how HqbA regulates sRNA signaling and investigated its physiological roles in modulating Hfq activity. Using fluorescent reporter assays, we found that HqbA overproduction suppressed all tested Hfq-dependent sRNA signaling. Direct interaction between HqbA and Hfq was demonstrated both in vivo and in vitro, and mutants that blocked the interaction interfered with HqbA suppression of Hfq. However, an acetylation-deficient HqbA mutant still disrupted sRNA signaling, and HqbA interacted with Hfq at a site far from the active site. This suggests that HqbA may be bifunctional, with separate roles for regulating via Hfq interaction and for acetylation of undefined substrates. Gel shift assays revealed that HqbA strongly reduced the interaction between the Hfq distal face and low-affinity RNAs but not high-affinity RNAs. Comparative RNA immunoprecipitation of Hfq and sequencing showed enrichment of two tRNA precursors, metZWV and proM, by Hfq in mutants that lost the HqbA-Hfq interaction. Our results suggest that HqbA provides a level of quality control for Hfq by competing with low-affinity RNA binders.

tRNA production links nutrient conditions to the onset of sexual differentiation through the TORC1 pathway.

Target of rapamycin (TOR) kinase controls cell growth and metabolism in response to nutrient availability. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, TOR complex 1 (TORC1) promotes vegetative growth and inhibits sexual differentiation in the presence of ample nutrients. Here, we report the isolation and characterization of mutants with similar phenotypes as TORC1 mutants, in that they initiate sexual differentiation even in nutrient-rich conditions. In most mutants identified, TORC1 activity is downregulated and the mutated genes are involved in tRNA expression or modification. Expression of tRNA precursors decreases when cells undergo sexual differentiation. Furthermore, overexpression of tRNA precursors prevents TORC1 downregulation upon nitrogen starvation and represses the initiation of sexual differentiation. Based on these observations, we propose that tRNA precursors operate in the S. pombe TORC1 pathway to switch growth mode from vegetative to reproductive.

On archaeal homologs of the human RNase P proteins Pop5 and Rpp30 in the hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus kodakarensis.

The ribonuclease P (RNase P) proteins TkoPop5 and TkoRpp30, homologs of human Pop5 and Rpp30, respectively, in the hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus kodakarensis were prepared and characterized with respect to pre-tRNA cleavage activity using the reconstitution system of the well-studied Pyrococcus horikoshii RNase P. The reconstituted particle containing TkoPop5 in place of the P. horikoshii counterpart PhoPop5 retained pre-tRNA cleavage activity comparable to that of the reconstituted P. horikoshii RNase P, while that containing TkoRpp30 instead of its corresponding protein PhoRpp30 had slightly lower activity than the P. horikoshii RNase P. Moreover, we determined crystal structures of TkoRpp30 alone and in complex with TkoPop5. Like their P. horikoshii counterparts, whose structures were solved previously, TkoRpp30 and TkoPop5 fold into TIM barrel and RRM-like fold, respectively. This finding demonstrates that RNase P proteins in T. kodakarensis and P. horikoshii are interchangeable and that their three-dimensional structures are highly conserved.

Pentatricopeptide repeat motifs in the processing enzyme PRORP1 in Arabidopsis thaliana play a crucial role in recognition of nucleotide bases at TψC loop in precursor tRNAs.

Proteinaceous RNase P (PRORP1) in Arabidopsis thaliana is an endoribonuclease that catalyzes hydrolysis to remove the 5'-leader sequence of precursor tRNAs (pre-tRNAs). PRORP1 is composed of pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) motifs, a central linker region, and a metal nuclease domain, the NYN domain. The PPR motifs are single-stranded RNA-binding motifs that recognize bases in a modular fashion. To obtain insight into the mechanism by which the PPR motifs in PRORP1 recognize a target sequence in catalysis, N-terminal successive deletion mutants were overproduced in Escherichia coli, and the resulting proteins were characterized in terms of enzymatic activity using chloroplast pre-tRNA(Phe) as a substrate. Although Δ89, in which all PPR motifs are present, retained the pre-tRNA cleavage activity, Δ129 devoid of the first PPR motif (PPR1) had significantly reduced cleavage activity. Likewise, deletions of the second (PPR2) or third PPR (PPR3) motif abolished the cleavage activity, suggesting that PPR motifs play a crucial role in catalysis. A proposed recognition code for PPR motifs predicted that PPR2-PPR5 in PRORP1 recognize C, A/U, A, and U, respectively, whose sequence is in good agreement with C56-A57-A58-A59 in the TψC loop in pre-tRNA(Phe). Mutational analyses of nucleotide residues in the TψC loop as well as nucleotide-specifying residues (NSRs) in PPR motifs further suggested that PPR2 and PPR3 in PRORP1 favorably recognize nucleotide bases C56 and A57 at the TψC loop in pre-tRNA(Phe), respectively. This prediction and previous biochemical data were combined to construct a fitting model of tRNA onto PRORP1, showing that the mechanism by which PRORP1 recognizes pre-tRNAs appears to be distinct from that by bacterial RNase P.