Mycobacterium tuberculosis SatS is a chaperone for the SecA2 protein export pathway
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States
- Texas A&M University, United States
Abstract
The SecA2 protein export system is critical for the virulence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, the mechanism of this export pathway remains unclear. Through a screen for suppressors of a secA2 mutant, we identified a new player in the mycobacterial SecA2 pathway that we named SatS for SecA2 (two) Suppressor. In M. tuberculosis, SatS is required for the export of a subset of SecA2 substrates and for growth in macrophages. We further identify a role for SatS as a protein export chaperone. SatS exhibits multiple properties of a chaperone, including the ability to bind to and protect substrates from aggregation. Our structural studies of SatS reveal a distinct combination of a new fold and hydrophobic grooves resembling preprotein-binding sites of the SecB chaperone. These results are significant in better defining a molecular pathway for M. tuberculosis pathogenesis and in expanding our appreciation of the diversity among chaperones and protein export systems.
Data availability
All data generated and analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files. Figure supplements have been provided for Figures 1, 2, 5, and 8. Two additional supplementary tables describe the primers and plasmids used in this study. SatS C domain X-ray structure validation details are described in Figure 8-figure supplement 1 and have been deposited in PDB under the accession codes 6DRQ and 6DNM.
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The crystal structure of SatS c-terminal domainProtein Data Bank, 6DNM.
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Crystal Structure of SecB from Escherichia coliProtein Data Bank, 1QYN.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (AI054540)
- Brittany K Miller
- Lauren S Ligon
- Nathan W Rigel
- Seidu Malik
- Miriam Braunstein
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (A-0015)
- Ryan Hughes
- James C Sacchettini
Welch Foundation (A-0015)
- Ryan Hughes
- James C Sacchettini
University of North Carolina (Graduate School Disseration Award)
- Brittany K Miller
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM055336)
- Brandon R Anjuwon-Foster
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Bavesh D Kana, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All animal care and experimental protocols were in strict accordance with the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the University of North Carolina (protocol number 15-018.0).
Version history
- Received: July 12, 2018
- Accepted: December 31, 2018
- Accepted Manuscript published: January 3, 2019 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: January 15, 2019 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2019, Miller et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Mycobacterium tuberculosis SatS is a chaperone for the SecA2 protein export pathway
eLife 8:e40063.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.40063
Further reading
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- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
The agr quorum-sensing system links Staphylococcus aureus metabolism to virulence, in part by increasing bacterial survival during exposure to lethal concentrations of H2O2, a crucial host defense against S. aureus. We now report that protection by agr surprisingly extends beyond post-exponential growth to the exit from stationary phase when the agr system is no longer turned on. Thus, agr can be considered a constitutive protective factor. Deletion of agr resulted in decreased ATP levels and growth, despite increased rates of respiration or fermentation at appropriate oxygen tensions, suggesting that Δagr cells undergo a shift towards a hyperactive metabolic state in response to diminished metabolic efficiency. As expected from increased respiratory gene expression, reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulated more in the agr mutant than in wild-type cells, thereby explaining elevated susceptibility of Δagr strains to lethal H2O2 doses. Increased survival of wild-type agr cells during H2O2 exposure required sodA, which detoxifies superoxide. Additionally, pretreatment of S. aureus with respiration-reducing menadione protected Δagr cells from killing by H2O2. Thus, genetic deletion and pharmacologic experiments indicate that agr helps control endogenous ROS, thereby providing resilience against exogenous ROS. The long-lived ‘memory’ of agr-mediated protection, which is uncoupled from agr activation kinetics, increased hematogenous dissemination to certain tissues during sepsis in ROS-producing, wild-type mice but not ROS-deficient (Cybb−/−) mice. These results demonstrate the importance of protection that anticipates impending ROS-mediated immune attack. The ubiquity of quorum sensing suggests that it protects many bacterial species from oxidative damage.
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- Medicine
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Background:
End-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients experience immune compromise characterized by complex alterations of both innate and adaptive immunity, and results in higher susceptibility to infection and lower response to vaccination. This immune compromise, coupled with greater risk of exposure to infectious disease at hemodialysis (HD) centers, underscores the need for examination of the immune response to the COVID-19 mRNA-based vaccines.
Methods:
The immune response to the COVID-19 BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine was assessed in 20 HD patients and cohort-matched controls. RNA sequencing of peripheral blood mononuclear cells was performed longitudinally before and after each vaccination dose for a total of six time points per subject. Anti-spike antibody levels were quantified prior to the first vaccination dose (V1D0) and 7 d after the second dose (V2D7) using anti-spike IgG titers and antibody neutralization assays. Anti-spike IgG titers were additionally quantified 6 mo after initial vaccination. Clinical history and lab values in HD patients were obtained to identify predictors of vaccination response.
Results:
Transcriptomic analyses demonstrated differing time courses of immune responses, with prolonged myeloid cell activity in HD at 1 wk after the first vaccination dose. HD also demonstrated decreased metabolic activity and decreased antigen presentation compared to controls after the second vaccination dose. Anti-spike IgG titers and neutralizing function were substantially elevated in both controls and HD at V2D7, with a small but significant reduction in titers in HD groups (p<0.05). Anti-spike IgG remained elevated above baseline at 6 mo in both subject groups. Anti-spike IgG titers at V2D7 were highly predictive of 6-month titer levels. Transcriptomic biomarkers after the second vaccination dose and clinical biomarkers including ferritin levels were found to be predictive of antibody development.
Conclusions:
Overall, we demonstrate differing time courses of immune responses to the BTN162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccination in maintenance HD subjects comparable to healthy controls and identify transcriptomic and clinical predictors of anti-spike IgG titers in HD. Analyzing vaccination as an in vivo perturbation, our results warrant further characterization of the immune dysregulation of ESRD.
Funding:
F30HD102093, F30HL151182, T32HL144909, R01HL138628. This research has been funded by the University of Illinois at Chicago Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) award UL1TR002003.
