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Originally published In Press as doi:10.1074/jbc.M413521200 on February 23, 2005

J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 280, Issue 18, 17961-17968, May 6, 2005
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Location and Mobility of Twin Arginine Translocase Subunits in the Escherichia coli Plasma Membrane*

Nicola Ray{ddagger}, Anja Nenninger{ddagger}, Conrad W. Mullineaux§, and Colin Robinson{ddagger}||

From the {ddagger}Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom and the §Department of Biology, University College London, Darwin Building, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom

Received for publication, December 1, 2004 , and in revised form, February 3, 2005.


    ABSTRACT
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
The twin arginine translocation (Tat) system transports folded proteins across the bacterial plasma membrane. Two primary Tat complexes have been identified, comprising TatABC or TatA multimers, which may interact at the point of translocation. We have analyzed green/cyan/yellow fluorescent protein (XFP) fusions to each of the Tat subunits. We show that the TatB and TatC fusions are active and incorporated into purified TatABC complexes. Proteolytic clipping of the TatA-XFP fusion precludes a definitive conclusion regarding activity, but we do find that the full fusion protein is preferentially incorporated into the TatABC complex. A previous study has proposed that TatB and possibly TatC are localized at the cell poles, whereas TatA is distributed more uniformly throughout the plasma membrane. Here, we likewise show that TatA-XFP is primarily distributed around the periphery of the cell. However, whereas much of the TatB-XFP is found at the poles, quantitative imaging studies show that approximately half of the protein is uniformly distributed in the plasma membrane. Moreover, we show that the bulk of TatC-XFP is detected as a halo around the cells, in some cases as punctate areas that are much smaller than those occupied by TatB-green fluorescent protein (GFP), indicating a uniform distribution. No evidence for a polar localization of TatC-GFP was obtained. Although TatC-GFP is found correctly complexed with TatB, a high proportion of TatB-GFP is not linked to TatC, and we propose that this "free" TatB forms unphysiological assemblies, possibly because it is synthesized in excess. Since TatC is invariably complexed with TatB in wild-type complexes, the combined data demonstrate that TatABC complexes are uniformly distributed throughout the plasma membrane. The significance of the punctate TatA/B/C-GFP is unclear; fluorescence recovery after photobleaching measurements show that these pools of proteins are immobile, whereas nonaggregated proteins are highly mobile in the plasma membrane.


    INTRODUCTION
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
The twin arginine translocation (Tat)1 system is used for the transport of proteins across the chloroplast thylakoid membrane and the plasma membranes of a wide range of bacteria (reviewed in Refs. 1 and 2). In Gram-negative bacteria, the system is believed to comprise three key subunits that are products of a tatABC operon in many organisms (3, 4). Only two subunits may be involved in Gram-positive organisms (5, 6). The pathway derives its name from the twin arginine motif that forms a key determinant in the N-terminal signal peptides of its substrates (7, 8), and there is compelling evidence that one of its primary functions is to transport fully folded proteins across these tightly sealed biological membranes (9, 10). In bacteria, several known Tat substrates include periplasmic proteins that bind complex redox cofactors before translocation into the periplasm in a (presumably) folded form (3, 4, 1113).

Although only three tat genes are believed to be important for Tat operation in Escherichia coli, the encoded proteins appear to form at least two types of complex. Tagging of the TatC subunit led to the purification of a TatABC complex with an estimated mass of ~600 kDa according to gel filtration (14), although single particle electron microscopy suggests that detergent may account for much of the mass, and a size of ~370 kDa was determined by blue native gel electrophoresis (15, 16). The TatABC subunits have a combined molecular mass of 57 kDa, and this TatABC complex should therefore contain multiple copies of each subunit. Within the complex, TatB and TatC are present in stoichiometric amounts, and they operate even when fused together, indicating that the TatABC complex contains several copies of this heterodimeric unit. The TatA subunit is particularly intriguing; it is homologous to TatB and likewise found in the TatABC complex (14), but the vast majority does not co-purify with the TatBC subunits (14) and instead forms large, homo-oligomeric complexes. In one report, overexpression of TatA alone led to the characterization of a relatively discrete, ~460-kDa complex (17). Other work involving coordinated expression of TatABC indicated that TatA forms a wide range of complexes with sizes ranging from <100 to over 500 kDa (16). Estimates of subunit abundance show TatA to be in large molar excess over the other subunits in E. coli (18). Mechanistic studies using in vitro assays show that precursor proteins initially bind to the TatBC subunits (19, 20), strongly suggesting that this heterodimer forms the substrate binding site. In thylakoids, the TatA homolog (Tha4) was only found cross-linked to the other subunits in the presence of an energized membrane and ongoing protein transport (21). This has led to proposals that the binding of substrate triggers the recruitment of the homo-oligomeric Tha4 (or TatA) complex to generate the full translocation system. In this context, it should be noted that the thylakoid and E. coli systems may differ in terms of complex organization. Tha4 was not found associated with the Hcf106/cpTatC complex in blue native gels of solubilized thylakoids (19), whereas part of the TatA pool is tightly associated with TatBC, and this complex is indeed unstable in its absence, with TatB being subjected to proteolysis (22). Either the Hcf106-cpTatC complex differs from its bacterial TatABC counterpart or the Tha4 subunit is lost during analysis.

Another potentially important aspect of the Tat system is its location in bacteria. In a recent report (23), the TatABC subunits were tagged with green fluorescent protein (GFP) derivatives, and the proteins were found to accumulate as punctate regions at the cell poles. This was particularly evident with the TatB-GFP fusion, although some cells also showed a concentration of TatA-GFP toward the poles, whereas a halo was visible in others. TatC-GFP was only detected at low levels, but a polar localization was suggested by the preliminary data. The authors proposed that the core TatABC complex, responsible for binding of substrate, is restricted to these regions, and such a sequestering of the Tat system may have important implications for the mechanism. Here, we have fused GFP and its cyan/yellow derivatives to TatA, -B, and -C. We show that the TatB and TatC fusion proteins are active and able to assemble into TatABC complexes. Although substantial amounts of TatB-GFP are found at the cell poles, we show that both TatA-GFP and TatC-GFP fusions exhibit a predominantly peripheral localization. Because TatC is invariably found in close association with TatB, the data are consistent with Tat-dependent translocation occurring uniformly throughout the plasma membrane.


    EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
Bacterial Strains, Plasmids, and Growth Conditions—E. coli strain MC4100 (24) was the parental strain; {Delta}tatABCDE has been described before (25). All of the constructs described below were expressed using the arabinose-inducible pBAD24 vector, and arabinose-resistant derivatives were used as described (14, 25). E. coli was anaerobically grown at 37 °C in Luria broth (LB) as described in Ref. 26, supplemented with glycerol (0.5%), trimethylamine N-oxide (0.4%), and ammonium molybdate (1 µM). Medium supplements were used at the following final concentrations: ampicillin, 100 µg/ml; arabinose, 200 µM unless stated otherwise.

Generation of GFP/CFP/YFP Fusions—TatA, TatB, and TatC proteins fused to a fluorescent protein were constructed in pBAD-ABCs (14) by creating a unique restriction enzyme site (detailed in Table I) at the 3'-end of the tatA, tatB, or tatC gene, using the QuikChangeTM mutagenesis system (Stratagene) according to the manufacturer's instructions. This system was used to create the same or compatible restriction enzyme sites at either end of the required fluorescent protein, allowing ligation of the fluorescent protein fragment at the 3'-end of the tat gene.


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TABLE I
Constructs and vectors used in this study.

 
Primer Names, Sequences, and Details—Primers were as follows: TatASpeIF, 5'-GCGCCACGATAAAGAGCAACTAGTATCCGTGTTTGATATCGG-3'; SpeI, 3'-end of TatA; TatASpeIF, 5'-CCGATATCAAACACGGATACTAGTTGCTCTTTATCGTGGCGC-3'; SpeI, 3'-end of TatA; TatBAvrIIF, 5'-CGAGTGATAAACCCCTAGGATGTCTGTAGAAGATACTCAACC-3'; AvrII, 3'-end of TatB; TatBAvrIIR, 5'-GGTTGAGTATCTTCTACAGACATCCTAGGGGTTTATCACTCG-3'; AvrII, 3'-end of TatB; TatCAvrIIF, 5'-GCGAAAAAACTGAAGAACCTAGGTCGAATTGGTCGCACCC-3'; SpeI, 3'-end of TatC; TatCAvrIIR, 5'-GGGTGCGACCAATTCGACCTAGGTTCTTCAGTTTTTTCGC-3'; SpeI, 3'-end of TatC; FPSpeIF, 5'-GCTAGCAGGAGGAATTACTAGTCATGGTGAGCAAGGGCGAGG-3'; SpeI, 5'-end of CFP or YFP; FPSpeIR, 5'-CCTCGCCCTTGCTCACCATGACTAGTAATTCCTCCTGCTAGCC-3'; SpeI, 5'-end of CFP or YFP; GFP5'SpeIF, 5'-CGTGCGACTGCGGCGCAAACTAGTCGTAAAGGAGAAG-3'; SpeI 5'-end of GFP; GFP5'SpeIR, 5'-CTTCTCCTTTACGACTAGTTTGCGCCGCAGTCGCACG-3'; SpeI 5'-end of GFP; GFP3'SpeIF, 5'-GGCATGGATGAACTATACAAATAAACTAGTCTGTTTTGGCGG-3'; SpeI 3'-end of GFP; GFP3'SpeIR, 5'-CCGCCAAAACAGACTAGTTTATTTGTATAGTTCATCCATGCC-3'; SpeI, 3'-end of GFP.

Expression and Purification of Tat Complexes—Cells expressing these plasmids were induced using 0.1 mM arabinose unless otherwise stated, and membranes were isolated as described (14). The membranes were then solubilized in digitonin, and the Tat complexes were purified by ion exchange chromatography, Streptactin affinity chromatography, and gel filtration (Superose 6HR; Amersham Biosciences), essentially as described in Ref. 14, except that the mono-Q step used in this previous study was found to be unnecessary.

Cell Fractionations—Cells were grown anaerobically on LB with supplements as detailed above in the presence or absence of arabinose (as stated throughout); for studies on tat mutants, the cells were grown aerobically on LB. Periplasm and spheroplasts were prepared by the EDTA/lysozyme/cold osmoshock procedure (14). Spheroplasts were lysed by sonication, and intact cells and cellular debris were removed by centrifugation (5 min at 10,000 x g). Membranes were separated from the cytoplasmic fraction by centrifugation (30 min at 25,0000 x g). Protein concentration was determined using a BCA-linked assay (Pierce). Protein fractions were separated on a 10% nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel and stained for trimethylamine N-oxide reductase (TorA) as described (12).

Quantitation of Fluorescence—Fluorescence was quantified using an SLM-Aminco 8100 series 2 spectrometer set to photon-counting mode (integration time, 1 s; 200-µl sample volume; 3-mm glass cuvette). Detection of fluorescence from the different fluorophores used the following settings: GFP excitation, 475 nm; emission, 515 nm, YFP excitation, 488 nm; emission, 527 nm; CFP excitation, 434 nm; emission, 477 nm. Strains containing parental vectors were used as controls for background fluorescence levels.

Confocal Microscopy, Fluorescence Recovery after Photobleaching (FRAP) Measurements, and Confocal Images—After growth and arabinose induction as appropriate, liquid cultures of E. coli were spotted onto LB agar plates and left for 15–30 min to allow the liquid medium to be absorbed by the agar. Small blocks of agar with the cells adsorbed onto the surface were placed in the well of a custom built temperature-controlled sample holder and covered with a glass coverslip. All measurements were carried out at 37 °C. Fluorescence micrographs and FRAP measurements were performed using a laser-scanning confocal microscope (Nikon PCM2000) equipped with a 100-milliwatt argon laser and a x60 oil immersion objective lens. Excitation was with the 488-nm line from the laser. A 505-nm dichroic mirror was used, and GFP fluorescence was selected with a 515-nm interference filter. For high resolution images, a 20-µm pinhole was used, and images were averages of 10 scans. For FRAP measurements, cells were grown for 3 h prior to measurement in the presence of cephalexin (30 µg/ml), which inhibits cell division and thus produces elongated cells suitable for FRAP (27). One-dimensional FRAP measurements were carried out essentially as previously described (28). A 50-µm pinhole was used. Cells aligned in the Y direction were selected, and the bleach was carried by scanning the confocal laser spot at full power for 2–3 s across the cell in the X-direction. The laser intensity was then decreased by a factor of 32 with neutral density filters, and XY image scans were recorded at 4-s intervals. For both quantitative measurements and FRAP, fluorescence values were extracted from images using Optimas 5.2 image analysis software.

Confocal images shown in Figs. 6 and 7 were taken using a Leica DMRE confocal microscope equipped with the Leica confocal system TCS SP2 with an acousto-optical beam splitter and a 100-milliwatt argon laser. Excitation and emission wavelengths were as follows: CFP excitation, 458 nm; emission, 450–600; GFP excitation, 488; emission, 500–530 nm; YFP excitation, 514 nm; emission, 545–590 nm. Stacks of individual images were taken, and each line was scanned four times and averaged (line average).


    RESULTS
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
Generation, Expression, and Analysis of Tagged Tat Subunits—In order to visualize the location and mobility of Tat complexes, we added CFP, GFP, or YFP tags to individual Tat subunits as detailed under "Experimental Procedures." These tags (XFP is used generically below to denote GFP or a derivative form) were added to the relevant subunit within the tatABC operon in the arabinose-inducible pBAD24 vector. This plasmid, pBAD-ABC, has previously been used to express TatABC in order to purify TatABC complexes (14, 15). As used in this study, induction with arabinose leads to a ~20-fold overexpression of Tat subunits compared with wild-type levels. The vector was expressed in a {Delta}tatABCDE background in all cases, and a description of the tagged subunits is given in Table I. The experiments described below generally use only one form of tagged TatA/TatB/TatC in each case, but it should be noted that the various tags (GFP/CFP/YFP) behaved identically in comparative tests (data not shown).

Fig. 1 shows immunoblots of cells expressing TatAYFPBC, TatABCFPC, and TatABCGFP. The data show the expression of the full fusion proteins of the predicted sizes of 36.6, 45.4, and 55.9 kDa, respectively. In the case of TatC-GFP, the full-length fusion is stable, and there is no evidence for proteolytic clipping. With TatB-CFP, the full-length fusion predominates, although there are indications of smaller polypeptides in the region of ~27–45 kDa. Because these are detected by the TatB antibodies but not by GFP antibodies (not shown), these proteins originate from digestion of the C-terminal region of the GFP domain. Free TatB is not generated to any detectable extent. In the case of TatA-YFP, the full fusion protein is again detected by immunoblots, but a series of smaller polypeptides is evident, and, importantly, some mature size TatA is apparent, presumably resulting from proteolytic clipping of the fusion protein. This is significant in terms of determining whether the fusion is active, as explained below. Fluorescence emission spectra were obtained for cells expressing TatA/B/C fusions that contain the various XFP tag, and all were found to exhibit typical emission spectra with the vast majority of the fluorescence localized in the membrane fraction (data not shown).

Evidence That the TatB-XFP and TatC-XFP Fusion Proteins Are Active—We tested whether the TatA/B/C fusion proteins were active, using an assay for the export of a known periplasmic Tat substrate, TorA. Operons encoding TatA-YFP, TatB-CFP and TatC-GFP were induced using 0.1 mM arabinose, after which the cells were fractionated to generate periplasmic, cytoplasmic, and membrane fractions (P, C, and M) as detailed in the legend to Fig. 2. These fractions were analyzed using a native gel assay for TorA activity (12). In the wild-type cells (wt), the periplasm contains substantial amounts of TorA activity, although some activity is also evident in the cytoplasmic fraction; this is commonly observed with this substrate, since export is rarely complete (e.g. Refs. 14 and 15). In the {Delta}tatABCDE cells ({Delta}tat), TorA activity is found exclusively in the cytoplasm, as expected. The remaining panels show that TorA is exported in strains expressing TatA-YFP, TatB-CFP, and TatC-GFP. Export is as efficient as in wild-type cells, and this strongly suggests that the TatB-CFP and TatC-GFP fusion proteins are functional because we do not observe mature size TatB or TatC in the blots shown in Fig. 1. However, Fig. 1 showed that mature size TatA is present after expression of TatA-YFP, and this makes it difficult to determine whether the fusion protein is active. The fusion proteins are overexpressed by a factor of 10–20-fold relative to the low levels of TatABC present in wild-type cells, and if only a small proportion of expressed protein is mature size, this may be sufficient to support Tat-dependent export activity.

The XFP Fusion Proteins Are Selectively Assembled into TatABC Complexes, but "Free" TatB-CFP Is Also Present in Unexpectedly High Quantities—To further investigate the nature of the fusion proteins, we tested whether they can be incorporated into TatABC complexes using the purification protocol developed for the isolation of wild-type TatABC complexes (14, 15). Membranes were isolated from cells expressing fusion proteins, after which they were solubilized in digitonin, and the Tat complexes were purified using ion exchange chromatography (Q-Sepharose) followed by Streptactin affinity chromatography that involves recognition of the Strep II tags on TatC or TatC-GFP. This procedure results in effective purification of the TatABC complex (14), and it is invariably found that the bulk of TatB and TatC are found in the Streptactin eluate, whereas the vast majority of TatA is found in the Streptactin wash fraction with only a minor proportion present in the TatABC complex (14, 15).

Data for cells expressing TatAYFPBC are shown in Fig. 3. The top two panels show immunoblots of the Streptactin wash and elution fractions (and of the Q-Sepharose eluate loaded onto the column; lane Q), using a mixture of antibodies to TatA and TatB (A) or using antibodies to the Strep II tag on TatC (B). The data show that the bulk of TatA-YFP is present in the wash fractions as expected, but a significant quantity is found in the elution fractions, confirming that the protein does assemble into the TatABC complex. The efficacy of the column is evident from the observation that almost all of the TatB is found in the elution fractions, indicating that most of the TatABC complex had bound to the affinity column. The Strep II blot shows that the vast majority of TatC is present in the elution fractions, as expected from previous data (14, 15). Fig. 3C shows a silver-stained gel of the fractions, in which TatA-YFP is present as a 40-kDa band, and the TatB and TatC proteins, which have similar mobilities of 28 and 30 kDa, respectively, co-migrate in this instance. The data show that the TatAYFPBC is purified to homogeneity (the asterisks indicate a doublet of nonspecific higher molecular mass bands that are present in all of the lanes).

Similar analyses were performed on cells expressing TatAB-CFPC, and membranes were again prepared, solubilized, and subjected to the same purification steps (Fig. 4). Fig. 4A shows a blot using TatA antibodies, in which the subunit is again found in the wash fractions but also in the elution fractions, reflecting partial localization in a TatABC complex. In Fig. 4C, the TatC protein is found almost entirely in the elution fractions, confirming that the TatABC complex binds efficiently to this affinity column. In Fig. 4B, TatB-CFP is found in the same elution fractions, confirming assembly into the TatABC complex, but it is notable that a large proportion of the TatB-CFP is found in the wash fractions. This pool of TatB-CFP is clearly not associated with TatC and is thus exhibiting aberrant characteristics, since overexpression of wild-type TatABC to the same extent yields a TatABC complex that contains essentially all of the TatC, the vast majority of TatB, and a small fraction of the total TatA pool (14, 15).



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FIG. 1.
Immunoblots of E. coli cells expressing TatA/B/C-XFP fusions. The figure shows immunoblots of {Delta}tatABCDE cells expressing forms of the pBAD-ABC vector encoding tatABC operons in which GFP was fused to the C terminus of TatA, TatB, or TatC (as indicated). The samples were analyzed by immunoblotting using antibodies to TatA, TatB, or the Strep II tag on TatC as indicated. Lanes labeled pBAD-ABC contained equal loadings of cells expressing the wild-type tatABC operon. WT, MC4100 cells.

 



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FIG. 2.
Cells expressing TatA-, TatB-, and TatC-XFP fusions are active in Tat-dependent protein export. {Delta}tatABCDE cells expressing TatA-YFP, TatB-CFP, or TatC-GFP were fractionated to generate cytoplasmic (C), periplasmic (P), and membrane fractions (M). {Delta}tatABCDE cells ({Delta}tat lanes) and the same cells expressing wild-type TatABC (wt lanes) were also fractionated, and all samples were run on native polyacrylamide gels that were subsequently stained for TorA activity.

 
The fractions were again analyzed by silver staining, and Fig. 4D shows that the TatABCFPC is purified to homogeneity. These fractions contain only two visible bands, with molecular masses of 30 and 55 kDa, that correspond to TatC and TatB-CFP, respectively. TatA does not stain well with silver but was shown to be present in the fractions using immunoblotting, as detailed above. Overall, these data show that expression of TatABCFPC leads to formation of the expected TatABC complex, but a significant pool of TatB-CFP is not attached to TatC.

In both Figs. 3 and 4, it is notable that the purified complexes contain only the tagged Tat subunit (TatA-YFP or TatB-CFP) with no significant levels of truncated protein evident in either case. Thus, although some truncated protein is present in the immunoblots of TatB-CFP expression (Fig. 1), the full fusion proteins are preferentially incorporated into TatABC complexes. This provides strong evidence that the tagged TatB subunit is indeed functional. It is encouraging that the TatA-YFP is also incorporated into this complex, but it should also be emphasized that TatA also forms large homo-oligomers, and we have no direct means of assessing whether these are correctly formed with the TatA-YFP fusion.

Data for cells expressing TatABCGFP are shown in Fig. 5. In this case, the proximity of the Strep II tag to GFP, rather than the C terminus of TatC, leads to inefficient binding to the Streptactin column, and it did not prove possible to purify the complex to homogeneity. However, the immunoblots of wash and elution fractions clearly show that TatABCGFP is incorporated into the TatABC complex together with TatA and TatB. Again, only a minor part of the TatA pool is present in the elution fractions, whereas a substantial fraction of total TatB and a similar fraction of the available TatCGFP (about half) is found in the elution fractions. The TatABCGFP elutes as a ~650-kDa complex during gel filtration chromatography, indicating assembly into a complex of approximately the correct dimensions (not shown).

Confocal Microscopy Confirms That the TatA-XFP Is Primarily Localized in the Cell Periphery, whereas TatB-XFP Is Enriched at the Poles—Fig. 6 shows confocal images of {Delta}tatABCDE cells expressing TatA, TatB, and TatC fusion proteins after induction with arabinose for 3 h. The TatA-GFP image demonstrates that the fluorescence is visible as a halo in the cells, although some fluorescence is also apparent in the central regions, corresponding to fluorescence from above and below the focal plane. The TatA-GFP is distributed evenly throughout the periphery in most cells, but a minority of cells exhibit punctate regions of fluorescence, sometimes at the poles of the cells. These data resemble those obtained in an earlier study (23) using TatA-GFP.

The TatB-CFP image shows cells expressing TatABCFPC, and the fluorescence is localized in a very different manner. In most cells, a substantial CFP signal is present at the poles of the cells in large punctate areas; these are readily apparent in some cells in this image, but it should be emphasized that other cells are mostly above or below the focal plane, and similar polar accumulations were apparent when the remaining cells were analyzed by altering the plane of focus (not shown). Once again, these data resemble those obtained in a previous study using TatB-GFP (23).



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FIG. 3.
TatA-YFP is incorporated into a TatABC complex. TatAYFPBC was expressed as detailed in Fig. 1, and membranes were isolated, solubilized in digitonin, and subjected to Q-Sepharose ion exchange chromatography as described under "Experimental Procedures." The eluate from this column (Q) was subjected to Streptactin affinity chromatography, and the figure shows data for the wash fractions and elution fractions. A shows an immunoblot using a combination of antibodies to TatA and TatB; the mobilities of TatA-YFP and TatB are indicated. B shows an immunoblot using antibodies to the Strep II tag on TatC, and C shows a silver-stained SDS-polyacrylamide gel of the fractions. The asterisks denote nonspecific bands (identified as keratin). mk, molecular weight markers, with sizes indicated on the left.

 
The Distributions of TatC-XFP Fusions Differ Substantially from Those of TatB-XFPs—The distributions of TatC fusions are shown in the remaining two images. These data are of particular interest, because TatC-GFP was characterized in less detail in the previous study due to low expression levels (23). Nevertheless, the preliminary data obtained suggested a polar location similar to that observed for TatB-GFP. We have similarly found that the overall fluorescence of TatC-XFP fusions is invariably lower than that of TatA or TatB fusions, but expression of TatC-XFP was analyzed without difficulty using confocal microscopy, and Fig. 6 shows data for TatC-GFP. In the left image, the protein is apparent as a halo around the majority of cells, indicating a relatively uniform peripheral distribution. However, closer analysis show the presence of small punctate regions, which are clearer in the more highly magnified image on the right. These punctate regions are apparently randomly distributed around the cell periphery and are not enriched at the poles of the cells. Overall, the localization of TatC-XFP is very different from that of TatB-XFP, where a substantial polar distribution is invariably the norm under these induction conditions.

To understand in greater detail the basis for the polar regions of TatB-XFP fluorescence, we analyzed the distribution of one such fusion under differing levels of expression. We initially attempted to study the protein when expressed at levels equivalent to those of TatB in wild-type cells, but the fluorescence was too low to monitor (not shown). This probably reflects the low abundance of the Tat machinery in wild-type E. coli cells, since the Tat pathway is used for the export of only a minority of periplasmic proteins. To circumvent this problem, we studied the localization of TatB-GFP at different stages of induction. In the absence of arabinose, very little expression occurs using the pBAD24 vector (29), and the zero time image in Fig. 7 shows essentially no signal emanating from TatB-GFP; the low level green is autofluorescence due to the confocal settings used to capture images at a wide range of fluorescence intensities in the remaining images, and an identical signal is obtained using wild-type cells (not shown). The remaining images illustrate the appearance of TatB-GFP after induction with arabinose for 90, 120, 150, and 300 min. After 150 min, many of the cells are highly induced, and they exhibit the type of polar localization shown above in Fig. 6; after 300 min, the cells are fully induced, and virtually all of the cells show this pattern. However, the important images are those taken after 90- and 120-min induction, where the cells contain much lower levels of TatB-GFP fluorescence. Only a few highly induced cells exhibit any form of polar localization, and the vast majority instead contain TatB-GFP that is uniformly distributed around the cell periphery. These data clearly indicate that the polar localization appears only after the synthesis of substantial amounts of protein, and we interpret these data to mean that more natural levels of TatBGFP have no propensity to accumulate at the poles.



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FIG. 4.
TatB-CFP is incorporated into TatABC complexes. Membranes were prepared from cells expressing TatABCFP C, after which they were solubilized and fractionated by Q-Sepharose and Streptactin chromatography as described in the legend to Fig. 4 for TatAYFPBC. A–C, immunoblots using antibodies to TatA, TatC, and the Strep II tag on TatC. D, a silver-stained gel with TatB-CFP and TatC indicated.

 



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FIG. 5.
TatC-GFP is incorporated into TatABC complexes. Membranes were prepared from cells expressing TatABCGFP, after which they were solubilized and fractionated by Q-Sepharose and Streptactin chromatography as described in the legends to Figs. 3 and 4 for the other tagged variants. The figure shows samples of the membranes (M) and the wash and elution fractions from the Streptactin column. Samples were analyzed by immunoblotting with antibodies to TatA, TatB, or GFP as indicated (A–C, respectively).

 



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FIG. 6.
Differing distributions of TatA-GFP, TatB-CFP, and TatC-GFP. Shown are confocal images of cells expressing TatAYFPBC, TatABCFPC, and TatABCGFP as indicated. Part of the TatC-GFP panel is shown magnified on the right. Bar, 2 µm.

 



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FIG. 7.
TatB-GFP is uniformly distributed around the cell periphery at early induction times. Cells expressing TatABGFPC were grown to midlog phase in the absence of arabinose, after which arabinose was added to 0.1 mM and samples were analyzed by confocal microscopy immediately (t = 0 min) and after 90, 120, 150, and 300 min of further growth as indicated.

 
Quantification of Fluorescence from GFP Fusion Proteins— The confocal images clearly show the presence of punctate areas of fluorescence in cells expressing TatA/B/C fusions under standard induction conditions (3 h+), and we considered it important to understand the properties of the fusion proteins in these regions. First, we measured the fluorescence in both the dispersed and punctate regions of representative individual cells in order to gain a more quantitative assessment of the distribution of GFP in the two types of region. Table II shows a quantitative comparison of GFP fluorescence levels from cells expressing TatA-GFP, TatB-GFP, and TatC-GFP after induction under similar conditions. These data were obtained by quantifying fluorescence levels on a per pixel basis from individual cells exhibiting punctate distributions of GFP; note that data were not collected from cells expressing TatA-GFP or TatC-GFP where punctate distributions were not evident.



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FIG. 8.
The "dispersed" and "aggregated" forms of TatA-GFP do not readily exchange. Imaging and FRAP on E. coli TatA-GFP cells elongated by growth in the presence of cephalexin. All scale bars are 5 µm. a, high resolution image showing GFP fluorescence. b–d, FRAP image sequences. GFP fluorescence was bleached in a line across the cell (position denoted by a thick white bar), and a sequence of images was then recorded to monitor recovery of the bleach.

 


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TABLE II
Quantification of fluorescence from GFP fusion proteins in vivo

Data are extracted from confocal fluorescence images recorded as described under "Experimental Procedures." Fluorescence values are in arbitrary units (total pixel values x 10-3) and are means from at least 10 cells, with S.D. values. Total fluorescence includes both the polar concentrations and the remaining fluorescence, which is evenly dispersed in the plasma membrane. "Dispersed" fluorescence indicates concentrations in regions of the cell where there are no polar aggregates. Because cell length was variable, total fluorescence and dispersed fluorescence are expressed per µm of cell length, since this gives the best indication of the concentration of the fusion protein in the membrane. "Fluorescence per aggregate" is the mean total fluorescence in an individual polar spot.

 
The concentration of TatA-GFP appears significantly higher than that of TatB-GFP, and TatC-GFP is present at much lower levels. This may reflect the presence of varying levels of protein, but it should be noted that the various constructs may fluoresce differently, depending on the proximity of the GFP tag to the membrane. In the cases of both TatA-GFP and TatB-GFP, a significant proportion of the fusion protein is present in punctate concentrations ("aggregates"), with the remainder evenly dispersed throughout the plasma membrane. The evenly dispersed protein accounts for about 76% of TatA-GFP and 50% of TatB-GFP (Table II). In the polar concentrations, concentrations of TatA-GFP appear a little higher than those of TatB-GFP (Table II). These data indicate that first impressions of the confocal images of TatB-XFP cells can be misleading; they give the impression of a largely polar distribution, whereas approximately half of the protein is actually found in the periphery.



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FIG. 9.
FRAP analysis of cells expressing TatC-GFP. Cells expressing TatABCGFP were bleached in a line across the cell (denoted by a thick white bar) as in Fig. 8, and a sequence of images was recorder to monitor recovery of the bleached area. Scale bar (thin white line), 5 µm.

 
The "Dispersed" and "Aggregated" Forms of TatA-GFP and TatB-GFP Do Not Readily Exchange—We used FRAP to probe dynamic aspects of the distribution of the TatA-GFP, TatB-GFP, and TatC-GFP fusion proteins. Measurements were performed on elongated cells grown in the presence of cephalexin, since the small size of native E. coli cells makes FRAP measurements difficult (27). In the elongated cells, bright spots of fluorescence resembling the polar concentrations seen in native cells can often be seen at intervals throughout the length of the cell; an example of TatA-GFP localization is shown in Fig. 8a. Fig. 8b shows a FRAP measurement carried out with the bleach in a region of dispersed fluorescence from TatA-GFP. GFP fluorescence was bleached in a line across the cell (indicated by a thick white bar), and the bleached cell was then imaged repeatedly for the next 40 s. Immediately after bleaching (t = 0), a dark region is apparent and the fluorescence then rapidly recovers in the center of the bleach, indicating diffusion of the TatA-GFP in the membrane (28). Although the dispersed TatA-GFP is freely mobile in the membrane, the aggregated material is not. Fig. 8c shows a FRAP experiment in which the bleach is between a pair of bright fluorescent spots. The brightness of the spots decreases slightly during the bleach, but during the subsequent recovery period there is no change in the brightness of the spots, whereas the dispersed fluorescence surrounding the spots changes its distribution as in Fig. 8b. This shows that the fusion protein in the bright spots does not exchange with the dispersed material on these time scales. Fig. 8d shows that when a bright punctate spot is bleached, the spot does not subsequently reappear. Again, this indicates that the protein in the spots does not readily exchange with the dispersed protein.

Similar results were obtained with TatB-GFP (data not shown), and Fig. 9 shows a similar type of experiment carried out on cells expressing TatC-GFP, which was shown above to have a relatively uniform distribution in most cells. The fluorescence from these cells is far weaker, but even with these lower resolution images, Fig. 9 shows that after bleaching (region denoted with a thick white bar), the fluorescence rapidly recovers over the next few seconds. This confirms that the TatC-GFP is highly mobile.


    DISCUSSION
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES
 
Many aspects of the Tat pathway are poorly understood, and this applies to both the structure and mechanism of this protein transporter. There is good evidence for the existence of at least two forms of Tat complex: a ~370-kDa TatABC complex (1416) and separate homo-oligomeric TatA complexes that have been reported to be relatively homogeneous in one report (17) and highly heterogeneous in others (14, 16). However, the mode of interaction between these complexes is unclear. It has been reported (23) that these complexes differ in terms of cellular location, with GFP-tagged TatB found exclusively at the cell poles and tagged TatA distributed more uniformly around the periphery of the cells. This would have important mechanistic implications, and in the present report we have analyzed similar constructs with TatA, TatB, and TatC each linked to GFP, CFP, and YFP.

Before discussing the locations of these fusion proteins, it is important to consider whether they are active. With the TatB-XFP and TatC-XFP fusions, the evidence strongly indicates that these constructs are indeed active, because very little proteolytic "clipping" is observed in immunoblots of whole cell extracts, and the full-length fusions are effectively incorporated into purified TatABC complexes. The data for the TatA-XFP fusions, however, are less clear. Immunoblots clearly indicate that a small percentage of the protein is clipped to yield mature size protein, and, given that the fusion protein is overexpressed about 20-fold relative to wild-type TatA levels, this level of mature size protein would almost certainly be able to support Tat-dependent translocation activity. Although we have shown that TatA-XFP can be incorporated into the TatABC complex, which suggests that it may function correctly in this context, the bulk of TatA is found in separate homooligomeric complexes that are believed to be essential for the generation of the active translocation complex (1, 2, 16, 18). We have no means of assessing whether the TatA-XFP fusions function correctly in such complexes. The previous study on Tat-GFP fusions (23) found that expression of TatA, -B, and -C fusions complemented tat mutants lacking the relevant subunit, using growth on SDS as a criterion for Tat-dependent export activity. However, this study did not consider the issue of proteolytic clipping, although smaller polypeptides were apparent. Neither that study nor the present one used export assays that are in any sense quantitative, and this issue therefore awaits resolution in future studies.

Regarding the localization of Tat-XFP constructs, our data on TatA-XFP constructs are similar to those of the previous study (23), and the data all point to a rather uniform distribution of TatA-XFP throughout the plasma membrane, with a minor proportion of protein located in punctate areas (in the region of 24%, according to the data shown in Fig. 1). Our data with TatB-XFP constructs also resemble those obtained in Ref. 23, and we likewise find that the protein is found at the poles of the cells. However, quantitation of the images shows that a significant proportion of this fusion protein (about half) is present in the periphery.

Our data with TatC-XFP differ substantially from the findings described in Ref. 23. TatC-GFP was expressed at low levels in this study and could not be analyzed using the expression system used for TatA and TatB fusions. Some evidence pointed to a polar localization for TatC-GFP, although it was emphasized that the data were less clear than those obtained with the other fusions. Here, we have clearly shown that the distribution of TatC-CFP and TatC-GFP is very different from that of TatB-XFP constructs. Although some polar localization of TatC-XFP is observed, the bulk of protein is found in the form of a definite halo around the cells, indicative of a relatively uniform distribution throughout the plasma membrane. These confocal data demonstrate that the polar TatB-XFP fusions are not complexed with TatC in the stoichiometric ratio found for wild-type TatBC (14, 15). It is also significant that a similar localization of TatB-GFP is observed when the cells are induced for shorter time periods, suggesting that the polar localization may stem from either longer periods of synthesis or the increased levels of protein or both. Our FRAP data indicate that there is no rapid exchange of TatA-GFP or TatC-GFP between the punctate areas and the remainder of the plasma membrane. This is consistent with the idea that the protein in the punctate areas is not physiologically active.

Biochemical studies provide additional data on this issue. Affinity chromatography by virtue of the Strep II tag on TatC results in the partial or complete purification of complexes that contain both TatA and TatB-XFP, clearly demonstrating that TatB-XFP and TatC form a complex. This tagged TatABC complex is of the correct size, and, as detailed above, it is almost certainly active. The logical interpretation is that the halo of TatC-XFP is correctly complexed with TatB (and TatA). In turn, this strongly implies that the polar areas of TatB-XFP are not complexed with TatC, and they must, therefore, be inactive because there is clear evidence that TatB and TatC function together (14, 15). We cannot rule out the possibility that these areas represent stored forms of TatB that may be physiologically relevant. However, the confocal data do demonstrate that both of the primary types of Tat complex (TatA homo-oligomer and TatABC core) are uniformly distributed around the cell periphery. The one caveat is that we do not understand the significance of the smaller punctate areas that are often observed with the TatA and TatC fusion proteins.

The biochemical data are consistent with the imaging work. The Streptactin affinity column is highly effective at binding the Strep II-tagged TatC, which is accordingly found almost exclusively in the elution fractions. In previous studies, we have shown that the majority of TatB elutes in the same fraction as TatC, in keeping with the tight binding of this subunit to TatC within the TatABC complex (14, 15). However, our data with TatABCFPC-expressing cells show that a much higher proportion of TatB-CFP does not co-purify with TatC and instead elutes in the wash fractions of the Streptactin column. Overall, it appears that TatB-XFP fusions are expressed at abnormally high levels relative to TatC, since similar studies on wild-type TatB and TatC do not indicate the presence of comparable quantities of unbound TatB (14). The TatB-XFP that is not complexed to TatC is, in our opinion, likely to correspond to the polar TatB-XFP that does not co-localize with TatC in the imaging studies.


    FOOTNOTES
 
* This work was supported by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Grants P15253 [GenBank] and C18608 [GenBank] (to C. R.). The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact. Back

Supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Wellcome Trust. Back

|| To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: 44-2476-523557; Fax: 44-2476-523568; E-mail: Crobinson{at}bio.warwick.ac.uk.

1 The abbreviations used are: Tat, twin arginine translocation; GFP, green fluorescent protein; CFP, cyan fluorescent protein; YFP, yellow fluorescent protein; XFP, green/cyan/yellow fluorescent protein; FRAP, fluorescence recovery after photobleaching; TorA, trimethylamine N-oxide reductase; Strep, Streptactin. Back


    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 
We thank Dr. Richard Daniel for providing the CFP and YFP sequences used in this study.



    REFERENCES
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 ABSTRACT
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 DISCUSSION
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