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The Escherichia coli cellulose synthase subunit G (BcsG) is a Zn2+-dependent phosphoethanolamine transferase.

Alexander C Anderson | Alysha J N Burnett | Lana Hiscock | Kenneth E Maly | Joel T Weadge
The Journal of biological chemistry | 2020

Bacterial biofilms are cellular communities that produce an adherent matrix. Exopolysaccharides are key structural components of this matrix and are required for the assembly and architecture of biofilms produced by a wide variety of microorganisms. The human bacterial pathogens Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica produce a biofilm matrix composed primarily of the exopolysaccharide phosphoethanolamine (pEtN) cellulose. Once thought to be composed of only underivatized cellulose, the pEtN modification present in these matrices has been implicated in the overall architecture and integrity of the biofilm. However, an understanding of the mechanism underlying pEtN derivatization of the cellulose exopolysaccharide remains elusive. The bacterial cellulose synthase subunit G (BcsG) is a predicted inner membrane-localized metalloenzyme that has been proposed to catalyze the transfer of the pEtN group from membrane phospholipids to cellulose. Here we present evidence that the C-terminal domain of BcsG from E. coli (EcBcsGΔN) functions as a phosphoethanolamine transferase in vitro with substrate preference for cellulosic materials. Structural characterization of EcBcsGΔN revealed that it belongs to the alkaline phosphatase superfamily, contains a Zn2+ ion at its active center, and is structurally similar to characterized enzymes that confer colistin resistance in Gram-negative bacteria. Informed by our structural studies, we present a functional complementation experiment in E. coli AR3110, indicating that the activity of the BcsG C-terminal domain is essential for integrity of the pellicular biofilm. Furthermore, our results established a similar but distinct active-site architecture and catalytic mechanism shared between BcsG and the colistin resistance enzymes.

Pubmed ID: 32152228

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Associated grants

  • Agency: CIHR, Canada

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Dali Server (software resource)

RRID:SCR_013433

Network service for comparing protein structures in 3D. You submit the coordinates of a query protein structure and Dali compares them against those in the Protein Data Bank (PDB). You receive an email notification when the search has finished. In favourable cases, comparing 3D structures may reveal biologically interesting similarities that are not detectable by comparing sequences. Requests can also be submitted by e-mail to dali-server at helsinki dot fi. The body of the e-mail message must contain atomic coordinates in PDB format. If you want to know the structural neighbours of a protein already in the Protein Data Bank (PDB), you can find them in the Dali Database. If you want to superimpose two particular structures, you can do it in the pairwise DaliLite server. Academic users may download the DaliLite program for local use.

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Clustal Omega (software resource)

RRID:SCR_001591

Software package as multiple sequence alignment tool that uses seeded guide trees and HMM profile-profile techniques to generate alignments between three or more sequences. Accepts nucleic acid or protein sequences in multiple sequence formats NBRF/PIR, EMBL/UniProt, Pearson (FASTA), GDE, ALN/Clustal, GCG/MSF, RSF.

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Jalview (software resource)

RRID:SCR_006459

A free program for multiple sequence alignment editing, visualisation and analysis that is available in two forms: a lightweight Java applet for use in web applications, and a powerful desktop application that employs web services for sequence alignment, secondary structure prediction and the retrieval of alignments, sequences, annotation and structures from public databases and any DAS 1.53 compliant sequence or annotation server. Use it to view and edit sequence alignments, analyse them with phylogenetic trees and principal components analysis (PCA) plots and explore molecular structures and annotation. Jalview has built in DNA, RNA and protein sequence and structure visualisation and analysis capabilities. It uses Jmol to view 3D structures, and VARNA to display RNA secondary structure.

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