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Volume 270,
Number 39,
Issue of September 29, pp. 22752-22757, 1995
©1995 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.
The
NH -terminal Half of the Tn10-specified
Tetracycline Efflux Protein TetA Contains a Dimerization Domain (*)
(Received for publication, May 16,
1995; and in revised form, June 30, 1995)
Laura M.
McMurry (§),
,
Stuart B.
Levy
From the Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance and the
Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University
School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02111
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
FOOTNOTES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
REFERENCES
ABSTRACT
The 43.1-kDa tetracycline-cation/proton antiporter TetA from
Tn10 comprises two equal-sized domains, and
(amino-terminal and carboxyl-terminal halves, respectively). An
inactivating mutation in the domain can complement a mutation on
a second polypeptide in the domain to restore partial
tetracycline resistance in bacterial cells, suggesting that
intermolecular interactions permit this transport protein to act as a
multimer. In the present studies, multimer formation was examined in
mixtures of dodecylmaltoside extracts of membranes from Escherichia
coli cells containing different TetA derivatives. TetA,
TetA , and TetA were each fused
genetically to a six-histidine carboxyl-terminal tail. The ability of
these fusions, immobilized on a nickel affinity column, to bind wild
type TetA or other Tet fusions was determined. An interaction between
domains on different polypeptides which resulted in
multimerization was seen. The binding was specific for Tet protein and
did not occur with other membrane proteins or another polyhistidine
fusion protein. No - interactions were detected by this
method, although they are postulated to occur in the intact cell based
on the - genetic complementations. A dimeric model for TetA
having intermolecular - and - interactions is
presented.
INTRODUCTION
TetA(B), a cytoplasmic membrane protein encoded by
Tn10, is a member of a family of related tetracycline efflux
proteins in Gram-negative bacterial cells(1, 2) . It
mediates resistance to tetracyclines by pumping a cation-tetracycline
complex across the membrane outwardly in an electroneutral exchange for
an inwardly moving
proton(3, 4, 5, 6) . Experiments
with a collection of point mutations had shown that inactivating
mutations in the first half of the protein complemented those in the
second half in cells containing both
polypeptides(7, 8) . Complementation also occurred
with protein fragments(9) . However, each half of TetA did not
have a unique function completely independent of that of the other
half, since full or even half-resistance was rarely restored in
complementations, even in cases where the presence of both polypeptides
was confirmed. These results suggested that synergistic physical
interaction between the two halves of the protein was required for
resistance, and that such interaction could occur intermolecularly in a
dimeric or higher multimeric state. Further evidence for the
required interaction between the two halves and for dimerization came
from Tet protein chimeras. The sequences of the related tetA genes from the family of tetracycline resistance determinants
predicts that each TetA protein has two sets of six putative
membrane-spanning -helices separated by a putative large
cytoplasmic
loop(2, 9, 10, 11, 12) .
TetA proteins from classes A and C are more closely related (78%) than
either are to the class B (Tn10) protein (45%)(1) . An
``A/C'' chimera, containing the first ( ) half from class
A and the second ( ) half from class C, was active in expressing
tetracycline resistance, whereas a B/C or C/B chimera was
not(13) . Evidently the and halves functioned
together only if they were related closely enough. The B/C and C/B
chimeras together in the same cell, however, showed about 20%
complementation of tetracycline resistance, indicating multimer
formation(13) . - interaction was also suggested by
the ability of the cloned half to stabilize the cloned half
when both were present on separate polypeptides in the same
cell(14) . Complementation occurred in this case also. The
present work was designed to determine whether TetA extracted from the
cell existed as a multimer. We genetically fused six histidines to the
carboxyl terminus of TetA, TetA , and TetA of class B. The ability of such a ``6H'' fusion to bind
different Tet protein molecules was measured using Ni affinity chromatography.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
Construction and Description of PlasmidsSee Table 1for summary of plasmids and Fig. 1for diagrams of
protein constructs.
Figure 1:
Tet protein constructs. Drawings are
approximately to scale, except for an enlargement of the T7tag and the
6H tail. [Xa] indicates a protease factor Xa
cleavage site.
pACT7 (encoding T7 RNA polymerase
regulated by the lacUV5 promoter) (Kan, p15A origin). This
plasmid (16) was used in trans with pET21b-Tet6,
pLY17, and pLY22. pET21b-Tet6 (encoding Tet-6H, 45.6 kDa).
This plasmid, derived from pET21b (Novagen), provides a T7 promoter and lac operator regulating Tet-6H. It also provides lacI, the gene for the lac repressor, and was used in
conjunction with pACT7. Its construction has been described. ( )Tet-6H comprises an initial methionine followed by (in
order) an 11 residue ``T7 tag,'' TetA (minus the initial
methionine), leucine, glutamate, and then the six histidines (6H). pLY17 (encoding Tet -6H, 24 kDa). A 0.6-kilobase EcoRI-XhoI fragment representing the half of
TetA was deleted from pET21b-Tet6. The 5` ends were filled in with
Klenow DNA polymerase prior to ligation. TetA was
thereby in frame with the polyhistidine tail encoded 3` to the XhoI site. Loss of the 0.6-kilobase fragment was confirmed by
loss of the ScaI site within it, and by the 6.0 kilobase size
of the resulting plasmid. pLY17 was used in combination with pACT7. pLY22 (encoding Tet -6H, 24 kDa). The same tetA PCR product used to make pET21b-Tet6 was restricted with EcoRI (in the central loop of TetA) and XhoI (at the
end of TetA) and cloned into identically restricted pET21b. This put
the TetA domain in-frame with both the upstream
``T7 tag'' and the downstream polyhistidine tail encoded by
pET21b. pLY22 was used in combination with pACT7. pMalc-Tet1 (encoding MalE-Tet, 86 kDa). A tetA PCR product having BamHI sites on each end was restricted with BamHI and
cloned into BamHI-restricted pMAL-C2 (New England BioLabs).
This created an in-frame fusion between maltose-binding protein MalE
(missing its signal sequence) and the (cytoplasmic) amino terminus of
the intact TetA, with an intervening 28-amino acid linker containing a
factor Xa cleavage site. The fusion protein was regulated by P together with the lacI gene on the plasmid.
Transformants were selected on 20 µg/ml tetracycline without IPTG. ( )The strain synthesized several species of fusion protein,
the largest and most abundant migrating at 70 kDa. The largest species
was probably the intact fusion protein since it reacted with antiMalE,
it bound to an amylose column by the MalE domain, and it reacted with
antiCt to the carboxyl terminus of TetA. The fusion protein
was cleavable between MalE and TetA by factor Xa, as expected. ( ) pQEGH12 (encoding 6H-IICB ). This
plasmid (17) was used in strain ZSC112L(17) , which has
a glucose transporter ptsG mutation. The fusion protein is
regulated by the ptsG promoter and is expressed constitutively
in ZSC112L. pRAR1020 (encoding wild type TetA of class B)
and pRAR1027 (encoding C/B chimera of TetA). Both have the tet promoter regulated by TetR(13) . They were used in
strain BC32(13) . pRKH21 (encoding Tet279-LacZ,
approximately 144 kDa). This plasmid (15) in strain RV200 (15) is regulated by P . It is accompanied by
pcI857, a compatible Kan plasmid encoding the
temperature-sensitive cI857 repressor(15) . The fusion
protein was induced by a shift in temperature from 30 to 42 °C.
pRKH21 had resulted from a spontaneous fusion between TetA and LacZ (15) . Junction sequencing has now been performed (DNA
Sequencing Center, Division of Endocrinology, New England Medical
Center); the junction is at base pair 836 of TetA, fusing leucine 279
(at the amino terminus of the putative ninth transmembrane helix) of
TetA to proline 8 of LacZ. R222 (encoding wild type TetA of
class B). This large, naturally occurring, very low copy number plasmid
bears Tn10, which carries the complete class B tet determinant including the tet repressor(1, 18) . It is compatible with both ori pMB1 and ori p15A plasmids. Expression of TetA
was induced by tetracycline.
Strains, Medium, Chemicals, and -Galactosidase
AssaysUnless otherwise specified, the host strain of Escherichia coli was DH5 (Life Technologies, Inc.;
relevant loci recA, hsdR) and cells were grown in LB
(per liter: 10 g of tryptone, 5 g of yeast extract, 10 g of NaCl) at 37
°C. Antibiotics were purchased from Sigma, except that
5a,6-anhydrotetracycline was prepared by Mark Nelson of this
laboratory. -Galactosidase (LacZ) assays were performed as
described (19) . The LacZ assay was used to calculate picomoles
of Tet279-LacZ (as monomers) assuming 1 pmol of LacZ hydrolyzes 34.9
pmol of ONPG/min at 28 °C (see (19) ). The specific LacZ
activity of Tet279-LacZ was within a factor of two of that expected for
LacZ itself, showing that the Tet moiety was not
detrimental to the tetramerization of LacZ required for activity. A
plasmid bearing the gene for a 6H-LacZ fusion protein cloned into
pET14b was provided by Novagen in host BL21(DE3) (see below); this
strain was used to prepare a membrane-free cell lysate containing
6H-LacZ.
Complementation AssaysThe host strain was
BL21(DE3) (Novagen), which bears a chromosomal T7 RNA polymerase gene
regulated by the lac repressor. This strain was transformed
with pLY22 (Ap , bearing the Tet -6H gene and
having a pMB1 origin of replication). A second mutant plasmid known to
encode an active class B TetA domain and which had the
compatible p15A origin of replication and encoded Cm was
also introduced; the second plasmid was either pLR1097 (bearing wild
type tetA with a deletion in the -domain(9) ) or
pRAR1032 (bearing the B/C chimeric gene(13) ). In these second
plasmids the mutant tetA gene was regulated by the tet repressor TetR; non-inhibitory autoclaved chlorotetracycline (10
µg/ml) was used for induction(7) . Resistance to
tetracycline was measured by gradient plates (7) containing the
autoclaved chlorotetracycline and 20 µM IPTG.
Preparation of Membrane Extracts, Use of Ni-NTA Columns,
and Subsequent AnalysesGrowing cells bearing the appropriate
plasmids were induced (at A = 0.8) for
1.5-3 h with the appropriate agents (100 µM IPTG for
pET21b-Tet6, pLY17, pLY22, pMalc-Tet1; 42 °C for pRKH21;
tetracycline at 2 µg/ml for R222; 0.02 µg/ml
anhydrotetracycline (another gratuitous tet inducer(20) ) for pRAR plasmids. Cells were harvested and
used immediately or stored at -80 °C. Cells were lysed by
sonication at A = 100 in 50 mM sodium phosphate, 2 mM MgCl , 100 µg/ml
lysozyme, pH 7.4. Membranes were sedimented (105,000 g, 35 min, TLA 100.3 rotor (Beckman)) and resuspended in 10
mM sodium phosphate, pH 7.2 (0.3 ml/original 100 A units). n-Dodecyl- -D-maltoside (Anatrace, 8% ) was
added to 1.5%. After 30 min of occasional mixing (4 °C),
unsolubilized membranes were sedimented as before and discarded. The
detergent extracts were stored at -80 °C.Two different
dodecylmaltoside extracts (usually 10-50 µl of each) were
combined if desired to allow ``mixed multimers'' to form.
After 30 min of occasional mixing at 4 °C, 1/7 volume of 8-fold
concentrated column buffer was added (column buffer final concentration
was 50 mM sodium phosphate, pH 8.0, 300 mM NaCl, 5
mM imidazole, 0.03% dodecylmaltoside). Small (0.1) ml columns
of Ni-NTA (Qiagen) (Ni bound to nitrilotriacetate
immobilized on Sepharose CL-6B), were prepared in Pasteur pipettes and
washed in column buffer. The samples were loaded onto the columns (50
µl every 5-7 min) and washed with column buffer (0.2 ml, 2
min, 6). When desired, an elution in column buffer at 40 mM imidazole was then performed at the same rate. Finally, an elution
in column buffer at 1 M imidazole (pH adjusted to 8) was done
(0.08 ml, 5 min, 3). In some cases eluates were used for
dot-blots or assayed for LacZ. Otherwise they were precipitated with
trichloroacetic acid (10% trichloroacetic acid, 15-30 min at 4
°C, centrifuged 15,000 g, 10 min), dissolved in
sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE)
sample buffer (21) , and processed by SDS-PAGE (9 or 10%)
0.75-mm thick minigels. Some gels were then electroblotted onto
Immobilon P (Millipore) and probed with antiCt or antiTet antiserum,
followed by I-Protein A, as described. AntiCt
was specific for the carboxyl-terminal 14 amino acids of
TetA(22) ; its reaction with Tet-6H was less than 2% of that
with wild type TetA (determined by Molecular Dynamics Computing
Densitometer evaluation of x-ray film exposed to immunoblots of
SDS-PAGE gels), presumably due to the altered carboxyl terminus of
Tet-6H. AntiTet reacted with an epitope between residues 127 and 201 of
TetA and reacted equally well with Tet-6H. Some gels were
simply stained with Coomassie Brilliant Blue R-250 and dried in a
Tut's Tomb frame between two sheets of Ultraclear Cellophane
(both from Idea Scientific Co.). Protein bands on stained SDS-PAGE gels
were quantitated using the Computing Densitometer;
glyceraldehyde-6-phosphate dehydrogenase or ovalbumin served as
standards. The total amount of a 6H fusion in extracts was defined as
the sum of the amounts in the 40 mM and 1 M imidazole
eluates from Ni-NTA.
RESULTS
Formation of Mixed Multimers between Wild Type TetA and
Tet-6HDH5 cells containing pACT7 plus (i) the vector
containing the tet-6H gene (pET21b-Tet6), (ii) the vector
(pET21b) alone plus the wild type tetA gene on Tn10 (on naturally occurring plasmid R222), or (iii) pET21b-Tet6 plus
R222, were induced with IPTG. The wild type gene in the strains with
Tn10 was also induced with tetracycline. Dodecylmaltoside
detergent extracts of membranes from all cells were prepared. In one
case, extracts from i and ii were mixed in equal volumes for 5 min. The
extracts were passed through a Ni-NTA column to bind Tet-6H and
co-associated proteins. Bound proteins were eluted with 1 M imidazole, and both the original extracts and the bound proteins
were examined for wild type TetA and Tet-6H by immunodot blot using
antisera and I-Protein A.The original extracts loaded
onto the Ni-NTA columns were analyzed first. Probing with antiCt
antiserum, which reacts with TetA but not with Tet-6H, revealed that
the amount of TetA in the two strains bearing Tn10 was similar (Fig. 2, column A, rows 1 and 3). As
expected, the extract from the strain with only Tet-6H (without
Tn10) showed a low, probably host cell background, reaction
with antiCt (Fig. 2, column A, row 2). Use of
antiTet antiserum, which reacts similarly with both TetA and Tet-6H,
showed that cells synthesized less wild type TetA than overproduced
Tet-6H (Fig. 2, column B, row 1versusrow 2), as shown before.
Figure 2:
Detection of wild type TetA and Tet-6H
before and after Ni-NTA chromatography of dodecylmaltoside membrane
extracts (dot-blot). Rows 1-3, extracts applied to
Ni-NTA; (from 0.1 A units of cells): wild type
TetA (1), Tet-6H (2), or both (3) from the
same cell. Rows 4-7, 1 M imidazole eluates from
Ni-NTA (from 0.5 A units of cells): wild type
TetA (4), wild type TetA applied after Tet-6H (5),
wild type TetA and Tet-6H from the same cell (6), or wild type
TetA plus Tet-6H premixed before application (7). Blots were
probed with antiCt (A) or antiTet antiserum (B).
The samples which
bound to the Ni-NTA columns were then analyzed. Use of antiCt
demonstrated that little wild type TetA bound to Ni-NTA in the absence
of Tet-6H (Fig. 2, column A, row 4). On the
other hand, in the presence of Tet-6H bound to the resin, TetA binding
was clearly detectable. This was true whether the two versions of Tet
had been synthesized in the same cell (Fig. 2, column
A, row 6), or came from separate cells but were mixed
together prior to loading onto Ni-NTA (Fig. 2, column
A, row 7). If Tet-6H was loaded first, followed by TetA,
TetA was still bound (Fig. 2, column A, row
5). Use of antiTet confirmed that similar amounts of Tet-6H were
bound to Ni-NTA in all cases (Fig. 2, column B, rows 5-7). From Coomassie-stained gels this was
estimated to be about 5 µg (110 pmol). To evaluate the contribution
of the -6H region of Tet-6H to this binding, we mixed a membrane-free
cell lysate containing 6H-LacZ with a membrane extract containing TetA.
There was excellent binding of 6H-LacZ to Ni-NTA (about 100 µg, or
950 pmol of monomers) but no binding of TetA (data not shown).
Therefore, the binding of TetA to Tet-6H was not via the polyhistidine
region.
Formation of Mixed Multimers of Tet279-LacZ with Tet-6H,
but Not with 6H-IICB We also tested Tet279-LacZ,
encoded by pRKH21. This fusion contained the portion of TetA plus
the first two putative transmembrane helices and associated
extramembrane loops of the domain. In this case the Tet moiety
could be quantitated by LacZ activity. An extract containing 480 pmol
of Tet279-LacZ was used alone or mixed with one containing 240 pmol of
Tet-6H and passed over a Ni-NTA column. In the absence of Tet-6H, 8.7
pmol of Tet279-LacZ was bound to the column, while 37 pmol was bound in
the presence of Tet-6H. These results indicated a possible association
between Tet279-LacZ and Tet-6H.In a second experiment we included
an extract containing 6H-IICB as a control to see if Tet
would stick nonspecifically to another membrane protein immobilized on
the Ni-NTA column. 6H-IICB is an E. coli membrane protein of 8 putative transmembrane segments which
transports glucose as part of the phosphotransferase system and which
has a polyhistidine head at the amino terminus(17) . As a final
control to measure background binding of Tet279-LacZ, we also included
an extract from cells containing no polyhistidine fusion protein. We
found that the background binding of Tet-279-LacZ (Table 2) was
1.5% of that applied, similar to that in the first experiment (1.8%).
Even though three times as much 6H-IICB as Tet-6H was
applied and bound to the Ni-NTA column, only one-tenth as much net
Tet279-LacZ was bound to it as to Tet-6H (Table 2). These results
showed that the binding of Tet279-LacZ was specific for Tet-6H and did
not occur with an unrelated integral membrane protein. The results also
showed that the Tet-Tet interaction might be between the domains
of the two different polypeptides, or between an and a
domain, but possibly not between the domains, since Tet279-LacZ
had the entire domain but only the first two helices and
associated loops of the region.
- Interactions Were Not Required for Multimer
FormationIn Tet -6H the domain is completely absent.
If indeed - interaction was not required for Tet-Tet binding,
Tet -6H should be able to bind a Tet protein containing both
and domains. As its prospective partner, we used the MalE-Tet
fusion in which the entire TetA protein was fused genetically via a
linking region to the carboxyl terminus of MalE. The MalE-Tet fusion
could be detected by its large size (migrating at 70 kDa) on
Coomassie-stained SDS-PAGE. We again included 6H-IICB as
a negative control. Dodecylmaltoside extracts containing MalE-Tet were
mixed with extracts containing no fusion, IICB , or
Tet -6H and passed over a Ni-NTA column. Sequential elutions were
done at 40 mM and 1 M imidazole.The MalE-Tet
polypeptide was not bound in absence of polyhistidine fusion (Fig. 3, lanes 1) nor to 6H-IICB (Fig. 3, lanes 2). MalE-Tet was, however, bound
to Tet -6H (Fig. 3, lanes 3). These results
extended the previous finding with Tet279-LacZ, showing that an
domain of TetA was sufficient for binding to full-length Tet.
Therefore, - interactions were not necessary.
Figure 3:
Association of MalE-Tet with Ni-NTA-bound
Tet -6H or 6H-IICB . Dodecylmaltoside extracts of
membranes from 6 A units of cells containing
MalE-Tet were mixed with the same amount of a second dodecylmaltoside
extract (see below) and loaded onto Ni-NTA columns. Proteins which
bound and eluted at 40 mM or 1 M imidazole are shown
by SDS-PAGE (1.4 A unit/lane). The second
extract contained: lanes 1, no fusion (host extract); lanes 2, 6H-IICB ; lanes 3, Tet -6H.
Molecular mass standards (kDa) are in lane S. The molar ratio
of MalE-Tet Tet -6H was about 0.9 for the material loaded,
0.5 for the 40 mM eluate, and 0.09 for the 1 M eluate. The molar ratio of MalE-Tet 6H-IICB loaded was 2.0.
- Interactions Did Not Contribute to Multimer
FormationThe genetic complementation which occurred between
and domains on different polypeptides (7, 8, 9, 13, 14) had
suggested that these two domains could interact physically. We looked
for such an - interaction with Tet -6H. We mixed extracts
containing either B/B (that is, wild type TetA from the class B
tetracycline resistance determinant) or C/B (a chimera containing the
domain from class C, the domain from class B) (see Fig. 1) with an extract containing Tet -6H. A
MalE-Tet/Tet -6H mixture was included as a positive control. Since
B/B and C/B were not made by cells in sufficient quantities to be
detected by Coomassie-stained SDS-PAGE, all proteins bound to
Tet -6H were detected by immunoblot of SDS-PAGE gels. The results
are shown in Fig. 4. Binding of Tet -6H to Ni-NTA was
verified using antiTet (Fig. 4, lane 1"), as was
binding of MalE-Tet to Tet -6H (data not shown). Using antiCt,
binding of B/B to Tet -6H was seen (Fig. 4, lane
2`), as expected from the earlier experiments. However, little
binding of C/B was seen (Fig. 4, lane 3`), even though
much more C/B than B/B had been applied to the Ni-NTA columns, (Fig. 4, lane 3versuslane 2). These
results suggested that the domains of classes B and C interacted
poorly. They also unexpectedly implied that there was little
interaction between the domain of class B (on C/B) with the
domain of class B (on Tet -6H).
Figure 4:
Association of B/B but not C/B with
Ni-NTA-bound Tet -6H. The method of Fig. 3was employed
except that immunoblots are shown. An extract representing 9 A units of the Tet -6H strain was mixed with
an extract representing 24 A units of the other
strains. Each SDS-PAGE lane contains 0.075 A units (loaded onto Ni-NTA) or 1.7 A units
(Tet -6H, bound to Ni-NTA). Lanes 1-3 are the loaded
samples: 1, host with no plasmid; 2, B/B; 3,
C/B. Lanes 1`-3` are the bound samples, all containing
Tet -6H plus: 1`, host with no plasmid; 2`, B/B; 3`, C/B. Blots were probed with antiCt to reveal B/B and C/B
or with antiTet to reveal Tet -6H.
Use of Tet -6H to Confirm Lack of - and
- Interactions: Observation of -
InteractionsThe fact that C/B did not bind to Tet -6H
suggested that the and domains of class B did not interact,
despite genetic data to the contrary. It was possible that the C/B
protein was for some reason in a nonbinding conformation after
extraction. Therefore, we constructed a polyhistidine fusion having
only the domain of class B for binding studies. This fusion was
designated Tet -6H.The Tet -6H protein was identified on
Coomassie-stained SDS-PAGE gels of Ni-NTA-bound protein as a band
migrating slightly more slowly than Tet -6H and not present in
fusionless host cells (data not shown). Quantification of these bands
indicated that cells containing pLY22, encoding Tet -6H, produced
only about 2% as much fusion protein as did cells bearing pLY17
(encoding Tet -6H). The functionality of Tet -6H encoded by
pLY22 was assayed in vivo by the ability to complement TetA
having a mutated domain encoded on a compatible plasmid. Two
different compatible mutant plasmids were tested in trans with
pLY22 (see ``Experimental Procedures''). No plasmid offered
tetracycline resistance alone (minimal inhibitory concentration of
tetracycline <0.2 µg/ml). pLY22 complemented both mutant
plasmids to give tetracycline resistance (minimal inhibitory
concentration >10 µg/ml). Therefore, the Tet -6H domain was
functional, at least in the intact cell expressing a complementing Tet
protein. Biochemical studies were then performed. Extracts of cells
containing Tet -6H or Tet -6H were loaded onto Ni-NTA columns
at volumes which contained approximately equal amounts of each fusion
protein. A volume of a host extract identical to the volume used for
Tet -6H was also loaded onto a column as a control. Then an extract
containing Tet279-LacZ (or MalE-Tet in one case) was passed over the
columns. Binding of Tet279-LacZ to the host extract column was
considered as background. The molar ratio of Tet279-LacZ to 6H fusion
applied to the column was about 2. The net molar ratio eluting at 1 M imidazole was about 0.038 for Tet -6H but only 0.002 for
Tet -6H. Tet -6H also bound no MalE-Tet observable on SDS-PAGE
even though the MalE-Tet Tet -6H molar ratio applied to
Ni-NTA was about 7 (data not shown). MalE-Tet was bound to Tet -6H
in the presence of Tet -6H extract, as expected, although the
required large volume of Tet -6H extract increased background bands
on SDS-PAGE, making quantification difficult (data not shown). These
results showed that Tet -6H was neither able to bind Tet containing
both and domains (in MalE-Tet), nor able to bind the
domain in Tet279-LacZ. Our earlier failure to see -
interaction in extracts was therefore confirmed, as was the absence of
- interaction. The results also suggested that -
interactions between Tet279-LacZ and Tet -6H were responsible for
Tet multimerization in this assay.
Comparison of Binding to with Binding
to + in Multimer FormationIt appeared that
binding between different Tet proteins in extracts could occur solely
by - interactions. To see whether - interactions
might be fortified by additional - ones, we compared binding
of Tet279-LacZ to Tet -6H with that to Tet-6H. In this experiment
the amount of Tet -6H recovered from cells and applied to the
Ni-NTA column was five times the amount of Tet-6H. 180 pmol of
Tet279-LacZ was mixed with Tet -6H or Tet-6H and loaded onto a
Ni-NTA column. Summation of values for elutions at 40 mM and
at 1 M imidazole gave 37 pmol of Tet279-LacZ co-eluting with
the 870 pmol of Tet -6H bound to the column, while 8.8 pmol of
Tet279-LacZ co-eluted with the 170 pmol of Tet-6H bound. On a molar
basis, Tet-6H bound about the same amount of Tet279-LacZ as did
Tet -6H. Therefore, the additional - interactions in
Tet-6H were not helpful to the association. We concluded that, except
for a possible role for the bit of the domain in Tet279-LacZ, the in vitro binding of one Tet polypeptide to another seen using
polyhistidine fusions and Ni-NTA columns must occur by interactions
between two or more domains.
DISCUSSION
We report here initial biochemical studies on the quaternary
structure of the tetracycline-cation/proton antiporter TetA. From
genetic data described earlier we had expected that TetA protein was
capable of functioning in vivo as a dimer or other multimer.
We had also imagined that the interaction would be between the
and domains. Earlier we had found that a small proportion of
either the B/B protein or the C/B chimeric protein could be
cross-linked into a immunoreactive band having the molecular weight of
a dimer, but that little coimmunoprecipitation of one Tet polypeptide
by antibody specific for another occurred, with or without
cross-linking. In the present work we explored another
biochemical method to test the multimer hypothesis. Immobilized
Ni can be used to bind proteins having a
polyhistidine region(23) . By the use of TetA-polyhistidine
fusion proteins, we were able to clearly show specific association
between two distinguishable Tet protein molecules from cell membrane
extracts. These heteromultimers between two Tet species formed simply
upon mixing a dodecylmaltoside extract containing one Tet species with
an extract containing the other. Apparently, in the mixtures the
original homomultimers have readily dissociated (within minutes) into
subunits, followed by rapid association with a heterologous subunit
into a multimer which was stable enough to detect. Presumably, the
rates of both association and dissociation are high, while the former
exceeds the latter to account for multimer stability on Ni-NTA. Binding
did not occur between TetA and another polyhistidine fusion of an
integral membrane transport protein, 6H-IICB , nor did
other cell membrane proteins associate with Tet-6H to any notable
extent, as was evident by its purity following Ni-NTA
chromatography. Therefore, we believe the Tet-Tet
interactions to be specific. Unexpectedly the crucial interaction in
formation of Tet multimers in vitro appeared to be between two
(or more) domains, rather than between an and a
domain. However, in intact cells, besides the genetic data there are
also physical indications of - interaction. The amount of a
polypeptide comprising the half of TetA in whole cells was
increased 1.5-fold or more by the presence of the half
polypeptide, suggesting a physical interaction of the two (14) . We have observed that the amount of full-length B/C
chimera in cells (normally very low) increased notably if the C/B
chimera was present in the same cell ; a simple explanation
for those results could be that the C/B protein formed a multimer with
the B/C protein via same-class - interactions and stabilized
it, although other explanations are possible. The fact that in the
present work we did not see - interactions after the Tet
protein had been extracted may mean that the domain for the C/B
and Tet -6H constructs did not have native binding properties in
our extracts or under our assay conditions. However, recent circular
dichroism studies on purified full-length Tet-6H, at least, show that
both and domains in that polypeptide do have approximately
the expected -helical content. A TetA dimer may be
held together both by - interactions (seen in the present
study for proteins extracted from membranes by dodecylmaltoside) and by
- interactions (not apparent using extracts, but inferred
from genetic and biochemical studies in whole cells). A model in which
both - and - interactions occur within a TetA dimer
is shown in Fig. 5. During complementation of B/C with C/B in vivo, the - interactions would presumably not
occur, but the - ones would. Two active sites/wild type
dimer, or one/ complementing dimer, would be expected. Our model might
explain why Tet -6H was found in cells at high concentrations
similar to those of the full-length fusion Tet-6H, while the amount of
Tet -6H was 50-fold lower, since the model allows to bind to
(or to ), and such associations may prevent degradation.
Absence of self-association for , as modeled, would lead to
degradation of when alone in a cell.
Figure 5:
Model of possible Tet dimer and monomer.
The plane of the page represents that of the membrane surface.
Hypothetical active site is denoted by an . A ribbon
representing the large cytoplasmic loop connects the and
domains within a single polypeptide strain. This loop is located in the
cytoplasm above the membrane surface.
The proposed structure of
the dimer differs from that proposed for a monomer both because of the
additional - interactions and the altered topology of the
central loop (Fig. 5). A monomer of TetA has both the domains
( and ) required for activity, and we cannot discount the
possibility that a complex consisting of only one and one
domain is capable of functioning. On the other hand, even when these
two domains are tethered together in a normal monomer, considerable
interaction with other such monomers must be allowed in vivo,
since intermolecular complementation can occur. Self-association of
monomers into dimers might be favored in the two-dimensional membrane
bilayer even more than the considerable degree seen here in detergent
extracts. Multimerization provides possibilities for scaffolding,
interfaces, and allostery. Some other membrane transport proteins of
the same superfamily (24) as TetA are known to occur as
multimers, including the facilitated glucose transporter
GLUT1(17, 25) , the erythrocyte anion exchanger Band
3(26) , and the Na /glucose cotransporter (27) . The relationship between these multimerizations and
function is uncertain(25, 28) , and at least one
example exists (the lactose permease, LacY) in which the transporter
almost certainly functions as a monomer(29) . Our results
strengthen the concept that the mechanism of action of TetA involves a
multimeric state.
FOOTNOTES
- *
- This work was supported by
Grant AI30646 from the National Institutes of Health. The costs of
publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of
page charges. This article must therefore by hereby marked
``advertisement'' in accordance with 18 U.S.C.
Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
- §
- To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Tel.: 617-636-4288; Fax: 617-636-0458.
- (
) - Aldema,
M. L., McMurry, L. M., Walmsley, A. R., and Levy, S. B.(1995) Mol.
Microbiol., in press.
- (
) - The abbreviations
used are: IPTG, isopropyl-1-thio-
-D-galactopyranoside;
PAGE, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis; ONPG, o-nitrophenyl- -D-galactopyranoside. - (
) - L. M. McMurry and S. B. Levy, unpublished data.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank B. Erni for plasmid pQEGH12 and strain
ZSC112L, A. Yamaguchi for antiCt, and Mark Nelson for
anhydrotetracycline.
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©1995 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

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