Signal Peptide Hydrophobicity Modulates Interaction with the Twin-Arginine Translocase

ABSTRACT The general secretory pathway (Sec) and twin-arginine translocase (Tat) operate in parallel to export proteins across the cytoplasmic membrane of prokaryotes and the thylakoid membrane of plant chloroplasts. Substrates are targeted to their respective machineries by N-terminal signal peptid...

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Autores principales:	Qi Huang, Tracy Palmer
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Society for Microbiology 2017
Materias:	Sec pathway Tat pathway protein secretion signal peptide suppressor genetics Microbiology QR1-502
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e8fec414df4d4ee985fb09985ed54368
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e8fec414df4d4ee985fb09985ed543682021-11-15T15:51:44ZSignal Peptide Hydrophobicity Modulates Interaction with the Twin-Arginine Translocase10.1128/mBio.00909-172150-7511https://doaj.org/article/e8fec414df4d4ee985fb09985ed543682017-09-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mBio.00909-17https://doaj.org/toc/2150-7511ABSTRACT The general secretory pathway (Sec) and twin-arginine translocase (Tat) operate in parallel to export proteins across the cytoplasmic membrane of prokaryotes and the thylakoid membrane of plant chloroplasts. Substrates are targeted to their respective machineries by N-terminal signal peptides that share a tripartite organization; however, Tat signal peptides harbor a conserved and almost invariant arginine pair that is critical for efficient targeting to the Tat machinery. Tat signal peptides interact with a membrane-bound receptor complex comprised of TatB and TatC components, with TatC containing the twin-arginine recognition site. Here, we isolated suppressors in the signal peptide of the Tat substrate, SufI, that restored Tat transport in the presence of inactivating substitutions in the TatC twin-arginine binding site. These suppressors increased signal peptide hydrophobicity, and copurification experiments indicated that they restored binding to the variant TatBC complex. The hydrophobic suppressors could also act in cis to suppress substitutions at the signal peptide twin-arginine motif that normally prevent targeting to the Tat pathway. Highly hydrophobic variants of the SufI signal peptide containing four leucine substitutions retained the ability to interact with the Tat system. The hydrophobic signal peptides of two Sec substrates, DsbA and OmpA, containing twin lysine residues, were shown to mediate export by the Tat pathway and to copurify with TatBC. These findings indicate that there is unprecedented overlap between Sec and Tat signal peptides and that neither the signal peptide twin-arginine motif nor the TatC twin-arginine recognition site is an essential mechanistic feature for operation of the Tat pathway. IMPORTANCE Protein export is an essential process in all prokaryotes. The Sec and Tat export pathways operate in parallel, with the Sec machinery transporting unstructured precursors and the Tat pathway transporting folded proteins. Proteins are targeted to the Tat pathway by N-terminal signal peptides that contain an almost invariant twin-arginine motif. Here, we make the surprising discovery that the twin arginines are not essential for recognition of substrates by the Tat machinery and that this requirement can be bypassed by increasing the signal peptide hydrophobicity. We further show that signal peptides of bona fide Sec substrates can also mediate transport by the Tat pathway. Our findings suggest that key features of the Tat targeting mechanism have evolved to prevent mistargeting of substrates to the Sec pathway rather than being a critical requirement for function of the Tat pathway.Qi HuangTracy PalmerAmerican Society for MicrobiologyarticleSec pathwayTat pathwayprotein secretionsignal peptidesuppressor geneticsMicrobiologyQR1-502ENmBio, Vol 8, Iss 4 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Sec pathway Tat pathway protein secretion signal peptide suppressor genetics Microbiology QR1-502
spellingShingle	Sec pathway Tat pathway protein secretion signal peptide suppressor genetics Microbiology QR1-502 Qi Huang Tracy Palmer Signal Peptide Hydrophobicity Modulates Interaction with the Twin-Arginine Translocase
description	ABSTRACT The general secretory pathway (Sec) and twin-arginine translocase (Tat) operate in parallel to export proteins across the cytoplasmic membrane of prokaryotes and the thylakoid membrane of plant chloroplasts. Substrates are targeted to their respective machineries by N-terminal signal peptides that share a tripartite organization; however, Tat signal peptides harbor a conserved and almost invariant arginine pair that is critical for efficient targeting to the Tat machinery. Tat signal peptides interact with a membrane-bound receptor complex comprised of TatB and TatC components, with TatC containing the twin-arginine recognition site. Here, we isolated suppressors in the signal peptide of the Tat substrate, SufI, that restored Tat transport in the presence of inactivating substitutions in the TatC twin-arginine binding site. These suppressors increased signal peptide hydrophobicity, and copurification experiments indicated that they restored binding to the variant TatBC complex. The hydrophobic suppressors could also act in cis to suppress substitutions at the signal peptide twin-arginine motif that normally prevent targeting to the Tat pathway. Highly hydrophobic variants of the SufI signal peptide containing four leucine substitutions retained the ability to interact with the Tat system. The hydrophobic signal peptides of two Sec substrates, DsbA and OmpA, containing twin lysine residues, were shown to mediate export by the Tat pathway and to copurify with TatBC. These findings indicate that there is unprecedented overlap between Sec and Tat signal peptides and that neither the signal peptide twin-arginine motif nor the TatC twin-arginine recognition site is an essential mechanistic feature for operation of the Tat pathway. IMPORTANCE Protein export is an essential process in all prokaryotes. The Sec and Tat export pathways operate in parallel, with the Sec machinery transporting unstructured precursors and the Tat pathway transporting folded proteins. Proteins are targeted to the Tat pathway by N-terminal signal peptides that contain an almost invariant twin-arginine motif. Here, we make the surprising discovery that the twin arginines are not essential for recognition of substrates by the Tat machinery and that this requirement can be bypassed by increasing the signal peptide hydrophobicity. We further show that signal peptides of bona fide Sec substrates can also mediate transport by the Tat pathway. Our findings suggest that key features of the Tat targeting mechanism have evolved to prevent mistargeting of substrates to the Sec pathway rather than being a critical requirement for function of the Tat pathway.
format	article
author	Qi Huang Tracy Palmer
author_facet	Qi Huang Tracy Palmer
author_sort	Qi Huang
title	Signal Peptide Hydrophobicity Modulates Interaction with the Twin-Arginine Translocase
title_short	Signal Peptide Hydrophobicity Modulates Interaction with the Twin-Arginine Translocase
title_full	Signal Peptide Hydrophobicity Modulates Interaction with the Twin-Arginine Translocase
title_fullStr	Signal Peptide Hydrophobicity Modulates Interaction with the Twin-Arginine Translocase
title_full_unstemmed	Signal Peptide Hydrophobicity Modulates Interaction with the Twin-Arginine Translocase
title_sort	signal peptide hydrophobicity modulates interaction with the twin-arginine translocase
publisher	American Society for Microbiology
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/e8fec414df4d4ee985fb09985ed54368
work_keys_str_mv	AT qihuang signalpeptidehydrophobicitymodulatesinteractionwiththetwinargininetranslocase AT tracypalmer signalpeptidehydrophobicitymodulatesinteractionwiththetwinargininetranslocase
_version_	1718427372013748224

Signal Peptide Hydrophobicity Modulates Interaction with the Twin-Arginine Translocase

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