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Plasmid pHH1 of Halobacterium salinarium: characterization of the replicon region, the gas vesicle gene cluster and insertion elements.

The DNA sequence of the 5.7 kb plasmid pHH9 containing the replicon region of the 150 kb plasmid pHH1 from Halobacterium salinarium was determined. The minimal region necessary for stable plasmid maintenance lies within a 2.9 kb fragment, as defined by transformation experiments. The DNA sequence contained two open reading frames arranged in opposite orientations, separated by an unusually high AT-rich (60-70% A+T) sequence of 350 bp. All H. salinarium strains (H. halobium, H. cutirubrum) investigated harbour endogenous plasmids containing the pHH1 replicon; however, these pHH1-type plasmids differ by insertions and deletions. Adjacent to the replicon, and separated by a copy of each of the insertion elements ISH27 and ISH26, is the 9 kb p-vac region required for gas vesicle synthesis. Analysis of these and other ISH element copies in pHH1 revealed that most of them lack the target DNA duplication usually found with recently transposed ISH elements. These results underline the plasticity of plasmid pHH1.

Base Sequence↗

The purple membrane of Halobacterium halobium: a new system for light energy conversion.

Patches of a distinctly different structure from the rest of the cell membrane occur in Halobacterium halobium. The isolated patches are called the purple membrane. It derives its colour from a retinal-protein complex, bacteriorhodopsin, which is the only protein species in this membrane serving a phototransducing function. Light energy is converted by a photochemical cycle going on continuously under illumination and accompanied by a cyclic release and uptake of protons. In the intact cell, this cycle operates as a vectorial process and therefore builds up an electrochemical gradient across the cell membrane conserving part of the absorbed light energy. The cell apparently uses this electrochemical gradient for the synthesis of ATP. Photophosphorylation is shown to be insensitive to cyanide but sensitive to dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCCD) and uncouplers. The concentration of ATP and the pH are tightly coupled but can be uncoupled by DCCD. Bacteriorhodopsin, as a light-driven proton pump, can then be studied in the cell as an isolated process. Quantitation of light energy conversion is possible by the indirect method of inhibition of respiration by light and the comparison of the number of absorbed quanta which prevent consumption of one molecule of oxygen.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗

Mechanism of adaptation of an atypical alkaline p-nitrophenyl phosphatase from the archaeon Halobacterium salinarum at low-water environments.

Enzymes suspended in organic solvents represent a versatile system for studying the involvement of water in catalytic properties and their flexibility in adapting to different environmental conditions. The extremely halophilic alkaline p-nitrophenylphosphate phosphatase from the archaeon Halobacterium salinarum was solubilized in an organic medium consisting of reversed micelles of hexadecyltrimethylammoniumbromide in cyclohexane, with 1-butanol as cosurfactant. Hydrolysis of p-nitrophenylphosphate was nonlinear with time when the enzyme was microinjected into reversed micelles that contained substrate. These data are consistent with a kinetic model in which the enzyme is irreversibly converted from an initial form to a final stable form during the first seconds of the encapsulation process. The model features a rate constant (k) for that transition and separate hydrolysis rates, v(1) and v(2), for the two forms of the enzyme. The enzyme conversion may be governed by the encapsulation process.

Acclimatization↗

Isolation and purification of amyloglucosidase from Halobacterium sodomense.

Amyloglucosidase from Halobacterium sodomense was purified by a combination of hydrophobic interaction chromatography and immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography at analytical and preparative scale with 75% recovery. The enzyme was found to be a dimer of two different subunits with molecular weights of 72,000 and 82,000 D, respectively, combining in a 175,000 D native protein. The specific activity, KM, and amino acid composition of the enzyme was determined.

Chromatography, Affinity↗

Retinal location in purple membrane of Halobacterium halobium: a neutron diffraction study of membranes labelled in vivo with deuterated retinal.

Purple membranes were prepared by growing Halobacterium halobium in a medium containing nicotine (which inhibits biosynthesis of retinal) and the oxidation products of fully deuterated beta-carotene. This allowed the in vivo incorporation of deuterated retinal into the membranes. The labelled membranes were crystalline and isomorphous with native membrane as determined by X-ray diffraction, and their optical absorption spectra were very similar. Neutron diffraction data for the two dimensional in-plane lattice from labelled and native membranes were analysed by difference Fourier and direct methods to 8.6 A resolution. The difference Fourier shows the retinal to be located in the centre of the bacteriorhodopsin molecule. The best fit to the data was obtained with the projection of retinal as a 10 A long rod forming an angle of -40 degrees +/- 10 degrees with the x axis centred at x = -0.19 +/- 0.02, y = -0.35 +/- 0.02 in fractional unit cell coordinates. The main peak in the difference Fourier map is at x = -0.17, y = -0.33.

Bacteriorhodopsins↗

Archaebacteria: transcription and processing of ribosomal RNA sequences in Halobacterium cutirubrum.

The chromosome of Halobacterium cutirubrum contains a single ribosomal RNA gene cluster. The 5' to 3' organization of genes within this 6-kpb region is: 16S, alanine tRNA, 23S, 5S, cysteine tRNA. The entire gene cluster is transcribed as a single long primary transcript; processing of mature RNA sequences from the 5' region of the transcript begins prior to the completion of synthesis at the 3' end. There are five conserved octanucleotide direct repeats (TGCGAACG) in the 900-bp 5'-flanking sequence in front of the 16S gene. The positions of these repeat sequences correspond to the different 5' ends of the primary transcript and probably represent the RNA polymerase start sites. The 16S and 23S rRNA genes are surrounded by long nearly perfect inverted repeat sequences. These sequences probably form duplex structures in the primary transcript and are recognized by an RNaseIII-like endonuclease activity that carries out the initial excision of the precursor 16S and 23S rRNA sequences. These precursors are rapidly trimmed tot he mature 16S and 23S molecules and assembled into ribosomal particles. The processing sites for 5S rRNA appear to be at or very near to the mature ends of the 5S molecule. The tRNA sequences are processed with reduced efficiency from the primary transcript. Nuclease cuts have been detected at the ends as well as in the middle of the cysteine tRNA sequence suggesting that there may be alternative processing pathways, one resulting in proper excision of the mature tRNA sequence and the other resulting in improper excision and degradation of the tRNA sequence. The transcription termination sequence is believed to be at or beyond an AT-rich sequence preceded by a GC-rich sequence located distal to the cysteine tRNA gene.

Base Sequence↗

Methyl-accepting taxis proteins in Halobacterium halobium.

Methyl-accepting taxis proteins were identified and characterized in Halobacterium halobium, an archaebacterial species that is both chemotactic and phototactic. The data suggest direct involvement of methylation and demethylation in mechanisms of both chemotaxis and phototaxis and identify adaptation as the sensory process in which those reactions are likely to be involved. Analysis by electrophoresis and fluorography revealed methyl-accepting species, of apparent Mr between 90,000 and 135,000, that exhibited characteristics of sensory components. Those methyl-3H-labeled species were absent in a mutant blocked in taxis. Methylation of specific bands increased after positive chemostimuli and decreased after negative stimuli. Other methyl-3H-labeled bands, from 17 to 29 kd, exhibited features of biosynthetic intermediates, not of sensory components. Assay of rates of demethylation by measuring release of volatile forms of radiolabeled methyl groups revealed transient changes following chemo- or photostimuli that persisted for periods roughly equivalent to adaptation times. Negative chemostimuli induced increased rates of demethylation, as expected from fluorographic analysis, but positive chemostimuli also resulted in an increase. Photostimuli of either sign were followed by increases in rates of demethylation of shorter duration and lesser magnitude than chemostimuli-induced increases, a relationship that corresponded to differences in adaptation time.

Bacterial Proteins↗

Characterization of the L11, L1, L10 and L12 equivalent ribosomal protein gene cluster of the halophilic archaebacterium Halobacterium cutirubrum.

We have cloned and characterized a 5.2 kb fragment of genomic Halobacterium cutirubrum DNA encoding two potential proteins of unknown function (ORF and NAB) and four proteins which are equivalent to the L11, L1, L10 and L12 ribosomal proteins of Escherichia coli (L11e, L1e, L10e and L12e). The ribosomal protein genes are clustered in the same order as that in E. coli although the transcription pattern differs. Transcripts characterized include (i) abundant monocistronic L11e and tricistronic L1e-L10e-L12e transcripts; (ii) less abundant bicistronic NAB-L11e and monocistronic NAB transcripts and (iii) a very rare ORF monocistronic transcript. The consensus sequence in the promoter region is TTCGA ... 4-10 nucleotides ... TTAA ... 25-26 nucleotides ... initiation site; termination generally occurs on poly(T) tracts following GC-rich regions. Poly(T) tracts in the sense strands within coding regions are notably absent; this is probably related to their participation in transcription termination and to the fact that these ribosomal protein genes are highly expressed and stoichiometrically balanced. In the third position of the codons G or C is utilized 87% of the time. The 74 nt long untranslated leader of the L1e-L10e-L12e transcript contains a region that has a sequence and structure almost identical to a region within the binding domain for the L1e protein in 23S rRNA and highly similar to the E. coli L11-L1 mRNA leader sequence that has been implicated in autogenous translational regulation. Other transcripts are initiated at or adjacent to the ATG translation initiation codon.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Signal transduction in Halobacterium depends on fumarate.

The isolation of a straight-swimming mutant of Halobacterium halobium is reported which has a defect in switching the rotational sense of its flagellar motor. Cells of this mutant strain could be complemented with an extract from wild-type cells by mild sonication and resealing of the cells in fresh medium. The switch factor responsible for restoration of wild-type behaviour was isolated from membrane vesicle preparations. Its chemical nature is proposed to be that of fumarate on the basis of chemical, chromatographic and mass spectrometric analysis. Since the switch factor (fumarate) was released from a membrane-bound state by heat and was accumulated into mutant cells that lack this compound, it is proposed that a membrane-bound protein exists which specifically binds the switch factor. Both the switch factor and fumarate cause stimulus-induced responses in cells at the level of one or few molecules.

Cell Movement↗

The methyl-accepting transducer protein HtrI is functionally associated with the photoreceptor sensory rhodopsin I in the archaeon Halobacterium salinarium.

We have investigated the functional relationship between two proteins involved in the photosensory system of the archaeon Halobacterium salinarium: the photoreceptor sensory rhodopsin I (SRI) and the halobacterial transducer rhodopsin I (HtrI), which has been proposed to be the putative signal transducer of SRI, by genomic DNA analysis of two independent SRI negative mutants, Pho81 and D1. Southern and PCR analyses revealed that both strains bear alterations in the 5' flanking region of the gene encoding SRI, sopI. DNA sequence analysis confirmed the occurrence in this region of htrI, the gene encoding the putative transducer protein. PCR and Northern analyses have shown further that sopI and htrI are expressed as a single transcriptional unit, thus explaining the lack of SRI in mutants with a defective htrI. Expression of the cloned sopI under the control of a heterologous promoter did not restore the SRI-dependent photoresponse in the strain Pho81. Moreover, the photocycling rate of the expressed pigment was clearly lower than in wild type. HtrI is therefore essential for SRI function and most likely modulates the photochemical properties of the photoreceptor via direct physical interaction. Finally, reintroduction of both sopI and htrI into Pho81 and D1 restored the SRI photochemistry and its physiological function. Our results provide the first experimental evidence for the functional coupling between SRI and HtrI and corroborate the proposed model in which HtrI acts as the signal transducer of this archaeal seven-helix photoreceptor in a way analogous to the bacterial chemotaxis transducers.

Bacterial Proteins↗

Phototaxis of Halobacterium salinarium requires a signalling complex of sensory rhodopsin I and its methyl-accepting transducer HtrI.

Sensory rhodopsin I (SRI) is a photoreceptor that mediates phototaxis in the archaeon Halobacterium salinarium. Receptor excitation is relayed to the motility system of the cell by the methyl-accepting transducer protein HtrI. In membranes prepared from cells that lack HtrI the absorbance difference maximum of SRI was shifted from 587 to 565 nm. The thermal decay of the metastable photocycle intermediate SRI373 was measured as time-dependent recovery of the absorbance at 590 nm. In the absence of HtrI the decay was slowed down by two orders of magnitude. When SRI was overproduced in cells that contained normal levels of HtrI, the decay of SRI373 was biexponential indicating two kinetically distinct species. Spectroscopic measurements on intact cells revealed the same effect of HtrI on SRI photocycling as found in isolated membranes. By transient exposure of membranes from wild-type cells to low ionic strength, the decay of SR373 was slowed to the same value found for untreated membranes in the absence of HtrI. In parallel, the absorbance difference maximum was shifted to 565 nm indicating that a physical interaction of HtrI and SRI had been irreversibly destroyed. Overproduction of SRI in the presence of wild-type amounts of HtrI did not increase the light sensitivity of the cells to orange light step down stimulation. It is concluded that SRI and HtrI form a stable complex in the cell membrane that signals to the flagellar motor and defines absorbance maximum, photocycling rate and photochemical efficiency of SRI.

Archaeal Proteins↗

Chemotaxis and phototaxis require a CheA histidine kinase in the archaeon Halobacterium salinarium.

Histidine kinases are part of the two-component signal transduction system responsible for eubacterial responses to diverse environmental signals. They have recently been detected in eukaryotes but their existence in the kingdom Archaea remains uncertain. Here we report the sequence and function of a histidine kinase (CheAH.s.) from Halobacterium salinarium, the first such transmitter in Archaea. The protein CheAH.s. (668 residues) has significant sequence identity with the CheA proteins known from eubacterial signal transduction (e.g. 34% identity with CheA from Bacillus subtilis). Antibodies were raised against CheAH.s. as expressed in Escherichia coli and were used in Western blotting to demonstrate the expression of cheAH.s. in H. salinarium. As has been observed for other halophilic proteins, CheAH.s. has a deviant electrophoretic migration, with an apparent molecular weight of 103 kDa on SDS-PAGE compared with a calculated molecular weight of 72 kDa. Deletion of a part of the cheAH.s. gene leads to loss of both chemotactic and phototactic responses in H. salinarium as measured by swarm plate assays, motion analysis and tethering experiments. This indicates that CheAH.s. plays a crucial role in chemical and light signal integration, presumably interacting with at least two phototransducers and a number of chemoreceptors.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Improvement of the two-dimensional gel electrophoresis analysis for the proteome study of Halobacterium salinarum.

Inherent problems exist in the use of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) for sample preparation and separation of proteins from Halobacterium salinarum. In particular, proteins from cells grown in 25% NaCl are difficult to resolve by 2-DE due to the abundance of salt. To remove salts, a 3 kDa molecular weight cut-off column was used. When soluble proteins were separated by 2-DE, most of the proteins were concentrated in the acidic range. For separation of proteins in the pH 3-6 range, ultrazoom immobilized pH gradient strips were used. In addition, sample separation using a IPGphor/Multiphor combined system was a more effective method for the proteome analysis of acidic proteins than using IPGphor for the isoelectric focusing step.

Databases, Protein↗

A detergent- and cyanogen bromide-free method for integral membrane proteomics: application to Halobacterium purple membranes and the human epidermal membrane proteome.

A simple and rapid method for characterizing hydrophobic integral membrane proteins and its utility for membrane proteomics using microcapillary liquid chromatography coupled on-line with tandem mass spectrometry (microLC-MS/MS) is described. The present technique does not rely on the use of detergents, strong organic acids or cyanogen bromide-mediated proteolysis. A buffered solution of 60% methanol was used to extract, solubilize, and tryptically digest proteins within a preparation of Halobacterium (H.) halobium purple membranes. Analysis of the digested purple membrane proteins by microLC-MS/MS resulted in the identification of all the predicted tryptic peptides of bacteriorhodopsin, including those that are known to be post-translationally modified. In addition, 40 proteins from the purple membrane preparation were also identified, of which 80% are predicted to contain between 1 and 16 transmembrane domains. To evaluate the general applicability of the method, the same extraction, solubilization, and digestion conditions were applied to a plasma membrane fraction prepared from human epidermal sheets. A total of 117 proteins was identified in a single microLC-MS/MS analysis, of which 55% are known to be integral or associated with the plasma membrane. Due to its simplicity, efficiency, and absence of MS interfering compounds, this technique can be used for the characterization of other integral membrane proteins and may be concomitantly applied for the analysis of membrane protein complexes or large-scale proteomic studies of different membrane samples.

Bacteriorhodopsins↗

Analysis of the cytosolic proteome of Halobacterium salinarum and its implication for genome annotation.

The halophilic archaeon Halobacterium salinarum (strain R1, DSM 671) contains 2784 protein-coding genes as derived from the genome sequence. The cytosolic proteome containing 2042 proteins was separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) and systematically analyzed by a semi-automatic procedure. A reference map was established taking into account the narrow isoelectric point (pI) distribution of halophilic proteins between 3.5 and 5.5. Proteins were separated on overlapping gels covering the essential areas of pI and molecular weight. Every silver-stained spot was analyzed resulting in 661 identified proteins out of about 1800 different protein spots using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF). There were 94 proteins that were found in multiple spots, indicating post-translational modification. An additional 141 soluble proteins were identified on 2-D gels not corresponding to the reference map. Thus about 40% of the cytosolic proteome was identified. In addition to the 2784 protein-coding genes, the H. salinarum genome contains more than 6000 spurious open reading frames longer than 100 codons. Proteomic information permitted an improvement in genome annotation by validating and correcting gene assignments. The correlation between theoretical pI and gel position is exceedingly good and was used as a tool to improve start codon assignments. The fraction of identified chromosomal proteins was much higher than that of those encoded on the plasmids. In combination with analysis of the GC content this observation permitted an unambiguous identification of an episomal insert of 60 kbp ("AT-rich island") in the chromosome, as well as a 70 kbp region from the chromosome that has integrated into one of the megaplasmids and carries a series of essential genes. About 63% of the chromosomally encoded proteins larger than 25 kDa were identified, proving the efficacy of 2-DE MALDI-TOF MS PMF technology. The analysis of the integral membrane proteome by tandem mass spectrometric techniques added another 141 identified proteins not identified by the 2-DE approach (see following paper).

Bacterial Proteins↗

Identification and characterization of inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase from Halobacterium salinarum.

Extremely halophilic Archaea, Halobacterium salinarum live in hypersaline habitats and maintain an osmotic balance of their cytoplasm by accumulating high concentrations of salt (mainly KCl). Therefore, their enzymes adapted to high NaCl concentrations offer a multitude of acutal or potential applications such as biocatalysts in the presence of high salt concentrations. In this study, the protein expression profile of H. salinarum cultured under different NaCl concentrations (3.5 M, 4.3 M, and 6.0 M) was investigated using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE). As a result of 2-DE, the protein spots concentrated in acidic range at pH 3-10 were separated effectively using pH 3.5-4.5 ultrazoom IPG DryStrips. The proteins which proved to be upregulated or downregulated in 2-DE gel were digested with trypsin and identified with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) and electrospray ionization quadrupole (ESI-Q) TOF-mass spectrometry. Most proteins were identified as known annotated proteins based on sequence homology and few as unknown hypothetical proteins. Among proteins identified, an enzyme named inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) was selected based on the possibility of its industrial application. IMPDH gene (1.6 kb fragment) expected to exist in H. salinarum was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and expressed in Escherichia coli strain, BL21 (DE3) using a pGEX-KG vector. Recombinant IMPDH purified from H. salinarum has a higher activity in the presence of salt than in the absence of salt.

Base Sequence↗

The membrane proteome of Halobacterium salinarum.

The identification of 114 integral membrane proteins from Halobacterium salinarum was achieved using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometric (LC/MS/MS) techniques, representing 20% of the predicted alpha-helical transmembrane proteins of the genome. For this experiment, a membrane preparation with only minor contamination by soluble proteins was prepared. From this membrane preparation a number of peripheral membrane proteins were identified by the classical two dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) approach, but identification of integral membrane proteins largely failed with only a very few being identified. By use of a fluorescently labeled membrane preparation, we document that this is caused by an irreversible precipitation of the membrane proteins upon isoelectric focusing (IEF). Attempts to overcome this problem by using alternative IEF methods and IEF strip solubilisation techniques were not successful, and we conclude that the classical 2-DE approach is not suited for the identification of integral membrane proteins. Computational analysis showed that the identification of integral membrane proteins is further complicated by the generation of tryptic peptides, which are unfavorable for matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometric peptide mass fingerprint analysis. Together with the result from the analysis of the cytosolic proteome (see preceding paper), we could identify 34% (943) of all gene products in H. salinarum which can be theoretically expressed. This is a cautious estimate as very stringent criteria were applied for identification. These results are available under www.halolex.mpg.de.

Cell Membrane↗

Identification of a novel protein D3UPCA from Halobacterium salinarum and prediction of its function.

Halobacterium salinarum is an extremely halophilic archaea, which is able to live in highly saline environments. In a recent study, several halophilic archaea were found to have the ability to biodegrade organic hydrocarbon pollutants, but protein information regarding hydrocarbon degradation and tolerance in halophilic archaea has been relatively rare. In this study, the protein expression profile of H. salinarum cultured under different diesel concentrations (0, 2 and 4%) was investigated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. Proteins which increased their expression levels in diesel media were identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight and electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry analysis. Among these, a protein spot (named D3UPCA) which was up-regulated about nine-fold and found to have COG3388, an uncharacterized protein conserved in archaea, was selected in order to further characterize its functions. The D3UPCA coding gene (named d3upca) was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli, and purified by the glutathione-S-transferase-fusion method. The function of the protein was estimated using various bioinformatics tools and was predicted to be related to the regulation of transcription and/or translation of genes needed to tolerate stresses associated within the presence of diesel oil.

Amino Acid Sequence↗