The twin-arginine protein translocation system (Tat) transports folded proteins across the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane and the thylakoid membranes of plant chloroplasts. The Tat transporter is assembled from multiple copies of the membrane proteins TatA, TatB, and TatC. We combine sequence co-evolution analysis, molecular simulations, and experimentation to define the interactions between the Tat proteins of Escherichia coli at molecular-level resolution. In the TatBC receptor complex the transmembrane helix of each TatB molecule is sandwiched between two TatC molecules, with one of the inter-subunit interfaces incorporating a functionally important cluster of interacting polar residues. Unexpectedly, we find that TatA also associates with TatC at the polar cluster site. Our data provide a structural model for assembly of the active Tat translocase in which substrate binding triggers replacement of TatB by TatA at the polar cluster site. Our work demonstrates the power of co-evolution analysis to predict protein interfaces in multi-subunit complexes.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.20718.001

Mitochondrial morphogenesis is a key process of cell physiology. It is essential for the proper function of this double membrane-delimited organelle, as it ensures the packing of the inner membrane in a very ordered pattern called cristae. In yeast, the mitochondrial ATP synthase is able to form dimers that can assemble into oligomers. Two subunits (e and g) are involved in this supramolecular organization. Deletion of the genes encoding these subunits has no effect on the ATP synthase monomer assembly or activity and only affects its dimerization and oligomerization. Concomitantly, the absence of subunits e and g and thus, of ATP synthase supercomplexes, promotes the modification of mitochondrial ultrastructure suggesting that ATP synthase oligomerization is involved in cristae morphogenesis. We report here that in mammalian cells in culture, the shRNA-mediated down-regulation of subunits e and g affects the stability of ATP synthase and results in a 50% decrease of the available functional enzyme. Comparable to what was shown in yeast, when subunits e and g expression are repressed, ATP synthase dimers and oligomers are less abundant when assayed by native electrophoresis. Unexpectedly, mammalian ATP synthase dimerization/oligomerization impairment has functional consequences on the respiratory chain leading to a decrease in OXPHOS activity. Finally these structural and functional alterations of the ATP synthase have a strong impact on the organelle itself leading to the fission of the mitochondrial network and the disorganization of mitochondrial ultrastructure. Unlike what was shown in yeast, the impairment of the ATP synthase oligomerization process drastically affects mitochondrial ATP production. Thus we propose that mutations or deletions of genes encoding subunits e and g may have physiopathological implications.

The twin-arginine protein transport (Tat) machinery mediates the translocation of folded proteins across the cytoplasmic membrane of prokaryotes and the thylakoid membrane of plant chloroplasts. The Escherichia coli Tat system comprises TatC and two additional sequence-related proteins, TatA and TatB. The active translocase is assembled on demand, with substrate-binding at a TatABC receptor complex triggering recruitment and assembly of multiple additional copies of TatA; however, the molecular interactions mediating translocase assembly are poorly understood. A ‘polar cluster’ site on TatC transmembrane (TM) helix 5 was previously identified as binding to TatB. Here, we use disulfide cross-linking and molecular modelling to identify a new binding site on TatC TM helix 6, adjacent to the polar cluster site. We demonstrate that TatA and TatB each have the capacity to bind at both TatC sites, however in vivo this is regulated according to the activation state of the complex. In the resting-state system, TatB binds the polar cluster site, with TatA occupying the TM helix 6 site. However when the system is activated by overproduction of a substrate, TatA and TatB switch binding sites. We propose that this substrate-triggered positional exchange is a key step in the assembly of an active Tat translocase.

Most nucleoside diphosphate kinases (NDPKs) are hexamers. The C-terminal tail interacting with the neighboring subunits is crucial for hexamer stability. In the NDPK from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mt) this tail is missing. The quaternary structure of Mt-NDPK is essential for full enzymatic activity and for protein stability to thermal and chemical denaturation. We identified the intersubunit salt bridge Arg80-Asp93 as essential for hexamer stability, compensating for the decreased intersubunit contact area. Breaking the salt bridge by the mutation D93N dramatically decreased protein thermal stability. The mutation also decreased stability to denaturation by urea and guanidinium. The D93N mutant was still hexameric and retained full activity. When exposed to low concentrations of urea it dissociated into folded monomers followed by unfolding while dissociation and unfolding of the wild type simultaneously occur at higher urea concentrations. The dissociation step was not observed in guanidine hydrochloride, suggesting that low concentration of salt may stabilize the hexamer. Indeed, guanidinium and many other salts stabilized the hexamer with a half maximum effect of about 0.1 M, increasing protein thermostability. The crystal structure of the D93N mutant has been solved.

SummaryThe Tat protein export system translocates folded proteins across the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane and the plant thylakoid membrane. The Tat system in E scherichia coli is composed of TatA, TatB and TatC proteins. TatB and TatC form an oligomeric, multivalent receptor complex that binds Tat substrates, while multiple protomers of TatA assemble at substrate‐bound TatBC receptors to facilitate substrate transport. We have addressed whether oligomerisation of TatC is an absolute requirement for operation of the Tat pathway by screening for dominant negative alleles of tatC that inactivate Tat function in the presence of wild‐type tatC. Single substitutions that confer dominant negative TatC activity were localised to the periplasmic cap region. The variant TatC proteins retained the ability to interact with TatB and with a Tat substrate but were unable to support the in vivo assembly of TatA complexes. Blue‐native PAGE analysis showed that the variant TatC proteins produced smaller TatBC complexes than the wild‐type TatC protein. The substitutions did not alter disulphide crosslinking to neighbouring TatC molecules from positions in the periplasmic cap but abolished a substrate‐induced disulphide crosslink in transmembrane helix 5 of TatC. Our findings show that TatC functions as an obligate oligomer.

The crystal structure of the wild-type nucleoside diphosphate kinase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis at 2.6 Å resolution revealed that the intersubunit salt bridge Arg80-Asp93 contributes to the thermal stability of the hexamer (Tm = 76°C). On mutating Asp93 to Asn to break the salt bridge, the thermal stability dramatically decreased by 27.6°C. Here, on mutating Arg80 to Asn, the thermal stability also significantly decreased by 8.0°C. In the X-ray structure of the R80N mutant solved at 1.9 Å resolution the salt bridge was replaced by intersubunit hydrogen bonds that contribute to the thermal stability of the hexamer. A citrate anion from the crystallization buffer was bound at the bottom of the nucleotide-binding site via electrostatic and hydrogen-bonding interactions with six conserved residues involved in nucleotide binding. Structural analysis shows that the citrate is present at the location of the nucleotide phosphate groups.

The twin arginine protein transport (Tat) machinery mediates the translocation of folded proteins across the cytoplasmic membrane of prokaryotes and the thylakoid membrane of plant chloroplasts. The Escherichia coli Tat system comprises TatC and two additional sequence-related proteins, TatA and TatB. Here we use disulfide crosslinking and molecular modelling to show there are two binding sites for TatA/B proteins on TatC. TatA and TatB are each able to occupy both sites if they are the only TatA/B protein present. However, under resting conditions the sites are differentially occupied with TatB occupying the ‘polar cluster’ site while TatA binds adjacently at the TatC transmembrane helix 6 binding site. When the Tat system is activated by the overproduction of a substrate, TatA and TatB switch their binding sites. We propose that this substrate-triggered positional exchange is a key step in the assembly of an active Tat translocase.

Single-stranded, positive-sense RNA viruses encode essential replication polyproteins which are composed of several domains. They are usually subjected to finely regulated proteolytic maturation processes to generate cleavage intermediates and end-products. Both polyproteins and maturation products play multiple key roles that ultimately allow synthesis of viral genome progeny. Despite the importance of these proteins in the course of viral replication, their structural properties, including the conformational changes regulating their numerous functions, are poorly described at the structural level. This lack of information is mainly due to the extreme difficulty to express large, membrane-bound, multi-domain proteins with criteria suitable for structural biology methods. To tackle this challenge, we have used a wheat-germ cell-free expression system. We firstly establish that this approach allows to synthesize viral polyproteins encoded by two unrelated positive-sense RNA viruses, a human norovirus and a plant tymovirus. Then, we demonstrate that these polyproteins are fully functional and are spontaneously auto-cleaved by their active protease domain, giving rise to natural maturation products. Moreover, we show that introduction of point mutations in polyproteins allows to inhibit the proteolytic maturation process of each virus. This allowed us to express and partially purify the uncleaved full-length norovirus polyprotein and the tymoviral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Thus, this study provides a powerful tool to obtain soluble viral polyproteins and their maturation products in order to conduct challenging structural biology projects and therefore solve unanswered questions.