Department of Biology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, USA.
Department of Microbial Pathogenesis, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
Mol Microbiol. 2022 Jul;118(1-2):47-60. doi: 10.1111/mmi.14951. Epub 2022 Jun 20.
The mycobacterial cell wall is profoundly regulated in response to environmental stresses, and this regulation contributes to antibiotic tolerance. The reversible phosphorylation of different cell wall regulatory proteins is a major mechanism of cell wall regulation. Eleven serine/threonine protein kinases phosphorylate many critical cell wall-related proteins in mycobacteria. PstP is the sole serine/ threonine phosphatase, but few proteins have been verified as PstP substrates. PstP is itself phosphorylated, but the role of its phosphorylation in regulating its activity has been unclear. In this study, we aim to discover novel substrates of PstP in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). We show in vitro that PstP dephosphorylates two regulators of peptidoglycan in Mtb, FhaA, and Wag31. We also show that a phosphomimetic mutation of T137 on PstP negatively regulates its catalytic activity against the cell wall regulators FhaA, Wag31, CwlM, PknB, and PknA, and that the corresponding mutation in Mycobacterium smegmatis causes misregulation of peptidoglycan in vivo. We show that PstP is localized to the septum, which likely restricts its access to certain substrates. These findings on the regulation of PstP provide insight into the control of cell wall metabolism in mycobacteria.
分枝杆菌的细胞壁会根据环境压力进行深度调节,这种调节有助于抗生素耐药性的产生。不同细胞壁调节蛋白的可逆磷酸化是细胞壁调节的主要机制。十一种丝氨酸/苏氨酸蛋白激酶磷酸化许多分枝杆菌中与细胞壁相关的关键蛋白。PstP 是唯一的丝氨酸/苏氨酸磷酸酶,但很少有蛋白质被证实是 PstP 的底物。PstP 本身被磷酸化,但磷酸化对其活性的调节作用尚不清楚。在这项研究中,我们旨在发现结核分枝杆菌(Mtb)中 PstP 的新底物。我们在体外证明 PstP 可使 Mtb 中两种肽聚糖调节因子 FhaA 和 Wag31 去磷酸化。我们还表明,PstP 上 T137 位的磷酸模拟突变负调控其对细胞壁调节因子 FhaA、Wag31、CwlM、PknB 和 PknA 的催化活性,而 Mycobacterium smegmatis 中的相应突变导致肽聚糖在体内的错误调节。我们表明 PstP 定位于隔膜,这可能限制了它对某些底物的作用。这些关于 PstP 调节的发现为理解分枝杆菌细胞壁代谢的控制提供了线索。