• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.2106-2115
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• 2016

To identify the global effects of (p)ppGpp in the gram-positive bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans, which exhibits remarkable resistance to radiation and other stresses, RelA/SpoT homolog (RSHs) mutants were constructed by direct deletion mutagenesis. The results showed that RelA has both synthesis and hydrolysis domains of (p)ppGpp, whereas RelQ only synthesizes (p)ppGpp in D. radiodurans. The growth assay for mutants and complementation analysis revealed that deletion of relA and relQ sensitized the cells to $H_2O_2$, heat shock, and amino acid limitation. Comparative proteomic analysis revealed that the bifunctional RelA is involved in DNA repair, molecular chaperone functions, transcription, the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and metabolism, suggesting that relA maintains the cellular (p)ppGpp levels and plays a crucial role in oxidative resistance in D. radiodurans. The D. radiodurans relA and relQ genes are responsible for (p)ppGpp synthesis/hydrolysis and (p)ppGpp hydrolysis, respectively. (p)ppGpp integrates a general stress response with a targeted re-programming of gene regulation to allow bacteria to respond appropriately towards heat shock, oxidative stress, and starvation. This is the first identification of RelA and RelQ involvement in response to oxidative, heat shock, and starvation stresses in D. radiodurans, which further elucidates the remarkable resistance of this bacterium to stresses.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.305-312
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• 2007

This study focused on the involvement of the unusual nucleotide (p)ppGpp, a stringent factor, during the morphological and physiological differentiation of Streptomyces coelicolor. Two genes, relA and rshA, were disrupted to demonstrate the roles of the stringent factor in the differentiation. The intracellular concentration of (p)ppGpp in the wild-type (M600) and disrupted mutants was measured in relation to the intentional starvation of a specific nutrient, such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphate or the in situ depletion of nutrients in a batch culture. As a result, it was found that the morphological characteristic of the ${\Delta}relA$ mutant was a bld phenotype forming condensed mycelia, whereas the ${\Delta}rshA$ mutant grew fast-forming spores and straightforward mycelia. In both mutants, the production of actinorhodin (Act) was completely abolished, yet the undecylprodigiosin (Red) production was increased. Intracellular (p)ppGpp was detected in the ${\Delta}relA$ mutant in the case of limited phosphate, yet not with limited carbon or nitrogen sources. In contrast, (p)ppGpp was produced in the ${\Delta}rshA$ mutant under limited carbon and nitrogen conditions. Therefore, (p)ppGpp in S. coelicolor was found to be selectively regulated by either the RelA or RshA protein, which was differentially expressed in response to the specific nutrient limitation. These results were also supported by the in situ ppGpp production during a batch culture. Furthermore, it is suggested that RelA and RshA are bifunctional proteins that possess the ability to both synthesize and hydrolyze (p)ppGpp.

• Proceedings of the Plant Resources Society of Korea Conference
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• 2019.10a
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• pp.8-8
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• 2019

The stringent response (SR) is characterized as a bacterial defense mechanism in response to various growth-inhibiting stresses. It is activated by accumulation of a small nucleotide regulator, (p)ppGpp, and induces global changes in bacterial transcription and translation. Recent work from our group has shown that (p)ppGpp plays a critical role in virulence and survival in Vibrio cholerae. The genes, relA and relV, are involved in the production of (p)ppGpp, while the spoT gene encodes an enzyme that hydrolyzes it in V. cholerae. A mutant strain defective in (p)ppGpp production (i.e. ${\Delta}relA{\Delta}relV{\Delta}spoT$ mutant) lost the ability to produce cholera toxin (CT) and lost their viability due to uncontrolled production of organic acids, when grown with extra glucose. In contrast, the ${\Delta}relA{\Delta}spoT$ mutant, a (p)ppGpp overproducer strain, produced enhanced level of CT and exhibited better growth in glucose supplemented media via glucose metabolic switch from organic fermentation to acetoin, a neutral fermentation end product, fermentation. These findings indicates that (p)ppGpp, in addition to its well-known role as a SR mediator, positively regulates CT production and maintenance of growth fitness in V. cholerae. This implicates SR as a promising drug target, inhibition of which may possibly downregulate V. cholerae virulence and survival fitness. Therefore, we screened a chemical library and identified a compound that induces medium acidification (termed iMAC) and thereby loss of wild type V. cholerae viability under glucose-rich conditions. Further, we present a potential mechanism by which the compound inhibits (p)ppGpp accumulation. Together, these results indicate that iMAC treatment causes V. cholerae cells to produce significantly less (p)ppGpp, an important regulator of the bacterial virulence and survival response, and further suggesting that it has a therapeutic potential to be developed as a novel antibacterial agent against cholera.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.8
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• pp.2419-2424
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• 2013

Guanosine-5'-diphosphate 3'-diphosphate (ppGpp) serves as alarmone in bacterial stringent responses. In this study, an affinity column was constructed by immobilizing ppGpp to NHS-Sepharose for isolating ppGpp-binding proteins. A novel ppGpp-binding protein, YjgA, was isolated and characterized by MALDI-TOF MS (matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry) coupled with two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. YjgA and truncated forms of YjgA were cloned and over-expressed in BL21 (DE3). The binding affinity of YjgA to ppGpp was determined by equilibrium dialysis. The interaction of YjgA with ppGpp was very specific, considering that the dissociation constant of YjgA with ppGpp was measured as $5.2{\pm}2.0{\mu}M$, while the affinities to GTP and GDP were about 60 and 30 times weaker than ppGpp. Expression of yjgA gene in Escherichia coli K-12 MG1655 was examined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). RT-PCR results revealed that yjgA was expressed from early to late stationary phase. The yjgA deletion mutant exhibited decreased cell number at stationary phase compared to parent strain and the over-expression of YjgA increased the cell number. These results suggested that YjgA might stimulate cell division under stationary phase. In most prokaryotic genome, about half of the protein candidates are hypothetical, that are expected to be expressed but there is no experimental report on their functions. The approach utilized in this study may serve as an effective mean to probe the functions of hypothetical proteins.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.816-820
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• 2018

The stringent response (SR), which is activated by accumulation of (p)ppGpp under conditions of growth-inhibiting stresses, plays an important role on growth and virulence in Vibrio cholerae. Herein, we carried out a genome-wide screen using transposon random mutagenesis to identify genes controlled by SR in a (p)ppGpp-overproducing mutant strain. One of the identified SR target genes was flaC encoding flagellin. Genetic studies using flaC and SR mutants demonstrated that FlaC was involved in bacterial growth, toxin production, and normal flagellum function under conditions of high (p)ppGpp levels, suggesting FlaC plays an important role in SR-induced pathogenicity in V. cholerae.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2006

Adaptation to any undesirable change in the environment dictates the survivability of many microorganisms, with such changes generating a quick and suitable response, which guides the physiology of bacteria. During nutritional deprivation, bacteria show a stringent response, as characterized by the accumulation of (p)ppGpp, resulting in the repression of stable RNA species, such as rRNA and tRNA, with a concomitant change in colony morphology. However, genes involved in amino acid biosynthesis become over-expressed to help bacteria survive under such conditions. The survivability of pathogenic bacteria inside a host cell also depends upon the stringent response demonstrated. Therefore, an understanding of the physiology of stringent conditions becomes very interesting in regulation of the growth and persistence of such invading pathogens.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Plant Pathology Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.69.1-69
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• 2003

RSH (relA/spoT homolog) has been known to determine the level of guanosine tetraphosphate (ppGpp) and guanosine pentaphosphate (pppGpp), which are the effector nucleotide of the prokaryotic stringent response and also play a role in antibiotic production and differentiation in Streptomyces species but not a little in eukaryotic organism, especially in plant. Salicylic acid (SA), a critical signal molecule of establishing systemic acquired resistance (SAR), could induce SAR in Pepper (Capcicum annuum) against Phytophthora capsici. And the extent of SAR induction was in proportion to the dosage of SA (or BTH). Suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH), a PCR-based method for cDNA subtraction, was carried out between SA-treated and non-SA-treated pepper leaves to isolate genes which may be responsible for defense signaling against pathogens. Early upregulated gene was selected from reverse northern and kinetics of SSH-genes transcripts in SA-treated pepper leaves upon SA treatment. Full-length cDNA of the gene (PepRSH； Pepper RelA / SpoT homolog) had an open reading frame (ORF) of 2166 bp encoding a protein of 722 amino acids and a significant homology with (p)ppGpp phosphohydrolase or synthetase. Genomic DNA gel blot analysis showed that pepper genome has at least single copy of PepRSH. PepRSH transcripts was very low in untreated pepper leaves but strongly induced by SA and methyljasmonic acid (MeJA), indicating that PepRSH may share common SA and MeJA-mediated signal transduction pathway Functional analysis in E. coli showed PepRSH confers phenotypes associated with (p)ppGpp synthesis through a complementation using active site mutagenesis.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.15-16
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• 2004

• 한국유가공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1996.11a
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• pp.18-29
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• 1996

1. CWPC중의 새로운 생리활성물질의 검색 Mouse 임파세포의 증식효과를 지표로 하는 면역기능을 검토하여 CWPC중의 면역 부활작용을 갖는 새로운 성분의 검색을 실시하였다. CWPC를 여러 가지 분획법으로 분획하여 mouse 임파세포의 증식효과를 지표로 면역 활성성분을 검색하였다. 그 결과 gel filtration, 음이온교환법을 사용하여 분획한 당을 다량 포함한 부분에 강한 면역부활담당세포에 대하여 증식활성을 나타내는 물질을 발견하였다. 이 물질은 SDS-PAGE상에서 분자량이 약 16kDa에 위치하여 Ca, P 및 당쇄를 포함한 물질이며, 이것을 GPP로 하였다. GPP에는 우유케이신의 trypsin분해물이며 Ca와 무기인을 풍부하게 포함하는 ${\beta}$-CPP와 유사한 phosphoserin 영역을 갖는 성분과 갖지 않는 성분의 2종류가 존재하며, 각각의 면역 부활활성이 인정되었다. 각 성분의 아미노산 분석, 당 분석의 결과에서 지금까지 보고된 우유중의 면역 담당세포에 대한 증식활성을 갖는 물질과는 상이한 성분인 것으로 밝혀졌다. 더욱이 이 활성물질 (GPP)은 PP cell에서도 동등한 활성이 있는 것으로 판단되었다. 이러한 결과를 종합하여 보면 CWPC중에서 지금까지 알려지지 않았던 새로운 면역 부활물질이 존재하며, 그 성분에는 CPP와 유사한 phophoserine 영역이 존재하는 성분이 포함되어 있고, N-글리코실 결합의 당쇄가 존재하는 것으로 시사되었다. 이 성분은 전신면역의 지표인 비장세포에 대해서만이 아니고, 장관면역계에 중요한 역할을 담당하는 PP cell에서도 활성이 있는 것으로 보아 전신 및 국부적인 면역기능의 부활성분으로서 응용의 가능성이 시사되었다. 2. GPP의 면역담당세포에 대한 증식활성의 메카니즘의 검토 CWPC중의 GPP의 면역담당세포증식활성의 메카니즘을 해명하기 위해 먼저 이 성분중의 어느 부분이 활성에 관여하는지를 pronase 분해 및 phophoserine 영역을 인식하는 항체를 사용하여 검토하였다. 그 결과 pronase 분해처리에서도 활성의 감소를 나타내지 않았으므로 이러한 활성에는 당이 필수 불가결하다는 점이 시사되었다. 또한 phosphoserine 영역을 인식하는 항체에 의해서도 활성은 감소하지 않는 것으로 보아 phosphoserine 영역이 세포증식활성에 관여하지 않는 것으로 판단되었다. 또한 분획한 면역담당세포에 대한 증식활성을 측정하는 것으로 이 성분의 표적면역담당세포를 동정하여, B세포에 대해서만 특이적으로 증식활성을 나타내는 것으로 밝혀졌다.

• BMB Reports
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.320-325
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• 1997

Thioredoxin is a multi-functional protein which is ubiquitous in microorganisms, animals and plants. Previously, expression of the E. coli thioredoxin gene was found to be negatively regulated by cAMP. In the present study, the effect of cAMP on two separate promoters of the E. coli thioredoxin gene was investigated. Cyclic AMP had a repressible effect on P1 and P1P2 promoter activity of the constructs. This effect was also observed in the cya strain. The P2 promoter construct gave very high -galactosidase activity, and its expression was not affected by exogenous cAMP. It was assumed that a cis-acting negative element, probably the cAMP-CRP binding site, might have been deleted in the P1 promoter construct. Repression of the thioredoxin gene expression by cAMP appeared to be independent of ppGpp.