SummaryArchaea, one of three major evolutionary lineages of life, encode proteasomes highly related to those of eukaryotes. In contrast, archaeal ubiquitin-like proteins are less conserved and not known to function in protein conjugation. This has complicated our understanding of the origins of ubiquitination and its connection to proteasomes. Here we report two small archaeal modifier proteins, SAMP1 and SAMP2, with a β-grasp fold and C-terminal diglycine motif similar to ubiquitin, that form protein-conjugates in the archaeon Haloferax volcanii. SAMP-conjugates were altered by nitrogen-limitation and proteasomal gene knockout and spanned various functions including components of the Urm1 pathway. LC-MS/MS-based collision-induced dissociation demonstrated isopeptide bonds between the C-terminal glycine of SAMP2 and the ε-amino group of lysines from a number of protein targets and Lys58 of SAMP2 itself, revealing poly-SAMP chains. The widespread distribution and diversity of pathways modified by SAMPylation suggest this type of protein-conjugation is central to the archaeal lineage.

Little is known regarding the biological roles of archaeal proteases. The haloarchaeon Haloferax volcanii is an ideal model for understanding these enzymes, as it is one of few archaea with an established genetic system. In this report, a series of H. volcanii mutant strains with markerless and/or conditional knockouts in each known proteasome gene was systematically generated and characterized. This included single and double knockouts of genes encoding the 20S core ␣1 (psmA), ␤ (psmB), and ␣2 (psmC) subunits as well as genes (panA and panB) encoding proteasome-activating nucleotidase (PAN) proteins closely related to the regulatory particle triple-A ATPases (Rpt) of eukaryotic 26S proteasomes. Our results demonstrate that 20S proteasomes are required for growth. Although synthesis of 20S proteasomes containing either ␣1 or ␣2 could be separately abolished via gene knockout with little to no impact on growth, conditional depletion of either ␤ alone or ␣1 and ␣2 together rendered the cells inviable. In contrast, the PAN proteins were not essential based on the robust growth of the panA panB double knockout strain. Deletion of genes encoding either ␣1 or PanA did, however, render cells more sensitive to growth on organic versus inorganic nitrogen sources and hypo-osmotic stress and limited growth in the presence of L-canavanine. Abolishment of ␣1 synthesis also had a severe impact on the ability of cells to withstand thermal stress. This contrasted with what was seen for panA knockouts, which displayed enhanced thermotolerance. Together, these results provide new and important insight into the biological role of proteasomes in archaea.Detailed three-dimensional structures of archaeal proteasomes have provided a firm foundation for understanding how these elaborate nanocompartmentalized complexes mediate protein degradation (3, 11). While their thermostable properties make archaeal proteasomes ideal for structural studies, the optimum growth requirements of archaea, which often include extreme pH, salt, and/or temperature, have limited our fundamental knowledge of how these proteolytic enzymes work in the ubiquitin-free archaeal cell.Halophilic archaea or haloarchaea have developed into model organisms that are used to study many biological processes. Recent advances in haloarchaeal genome sequencing (4,6,14,15) and the development of new genetic tools, such as the targeted and markerless deletion of chromosomal genes (1), have made this group of microbes ideal for providing insight into cell physiology.Haloferax volcanii is a haloarchaeon which encodes at least five protein components associated with the proteasome system. These include the ␣1, ␤, and ␣2 proteins, encoded by psmA, psmB, and psmC, respectively, which form at least two 20S proteasome subtypes of differing subunit compositions (␣1␤ and ␣1␣2␤) (8,20). H. volcanii also encodes two proteasome-activating nucleotidase (PAN) proteins, PanA (panA) and PanB (panB), closely related to the regulatory particle triple A-ATPase (Rpt) proteins of eukaryal 26S pro...

Laccases couple the oxidation of phenolic compounds to the reduction of molecular oxygen and thus span a wide variety of applications. While laccases of eukaryotes and bacteria are well characterized, these enzymes have not been described in archaea. Here, we report the purification and characterization of a laccase (LccA) from the halophilic archaeon Haloferax volcanii. LccA was secreted at high levels into the culture supernatant of a recombinant H. volcanii strain, with peak activity (170 ؎ 10 mU ⅐ ml ؊1 ) at stationary phase (72 to 80 h). LccA was purified 13-fold to an overall yield of 72% and a specific activity of 29.4 U ⅐ mg ؊1 with an absorbance spectrum typical of blue multicopper oxidases. The mature LccA was processed to expose an N-terminal Ala after the removal of 31 amino acid residues and was glycosylated to 6.9% carbohydrate content. Purified LccA oxidized a variety of organic substrates, including bilirubin, syringaldazine (SGZ), 2,2,-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), and dimethoxyphenol (DMP), with DMP oxidation requiring the addition of CuSO 4 . Optimal oxidation of ABTS and SGZ was at 45°C and pH 6 and pH 8.4, respectively. The apparent K m values for SGZ, bilirubin, and ABTS were 35, 236, and 670 M, with corresponding k cat values of 22, 29, and 10 s ؊1 , respectively. The purified LccA was tolerant of high salt, mixed organosolvents, and high temperatures, with a half-life of inactivation at 50°C of 31.5 h.Multicopper oxidases (MCOs) are a family of enzymes that include laccases (p-diphenol: dioxygen oxidoreductases; EC 1.10.3.2), ascorbate oxidases (EC 1.10.3.3), ferroxidases (EC 1.16.3.1), bilirubin oxidases (EC 1.3.3.5), and other enzyme subfamilies (27,65). MCOs couple the oxidation of organic and/or inorganic substrates to the four-electron reduction of molecular oxygen to water. These enzymes often have four Cu atoms classified into type 1 (T1), type 2 (T2), and type 3 (T3) centers, in which a mononuclear T1 center on the surface of the enzyme provides long-range intramolecular one-electron transfer from electron-donating substrates to an internal trinuclear T2-T3 center formed by a T2 Cu coordinated with a T3 Cu pair. The T2-T3 cluster subsequently reduces dioxygen to water.Enzymes of the laccase subfamily oxidize a broad range of compounds, including phenols, polyphenols, aromatic amines, and nonphenolic substrates, by one-electron transfer to molecular oxygen and thus have a wide variety of applications from biofuels to human health. The best-known application is the use of a laccase from the lacquer tree Rhus vernicifera in paint and adhesives for more than 6,000 years in East Asia (29). Laccases have also been used in the delignification of pulp, bleaching of textiles and carcinogenic dyes, detoxification of water and soils, removal of phenolics from wines, improving adhesive properties of lignocellulosic products, determination of bilirubin levels in serum, and transformation of antibiotics and steroids (60). In addition, laccases have demonstrated pote...

The TolC protein of Escherichia coli, through its interaction with AcrA and AcrB, is thought to form a continuous protein channel that expels inhibitors from the cell. Consequently, tolC null mutations display a hypersensitive phenotype. Here we report the isolation and characterization of tolC missense mutations that direct the synthesis of mutant TolC proteins partially disabled in their efflux role. All alterations, consisting of single amino acid substitutions, were localized within the periplasmic ␣-helical domain. In two mutants carrying an I106N or S350F substitution, the hypersensitivity phenotype may be in part due to aberrant TolC assembly. However, two other alterations, R367H and R390C, disrupted efflux function by affecting interactions among the helices surrounding TolC's periplasmic tunnel. Curiously, these two TolC mutants were sensitive to a large antibiotic, vancomycin, and exhibited a Dex ؉ phenotype. These novel phenotypes of TolC R367H and TolC R390C were likely the result of a general influx of molecules through a constitutively open tunnel aperture, which normally widens only when TolC interacts with other proteins during substrate translocation. An intragenic suppressor alteration (T140A) was isolated from antibiotic-resistant revertants of the hypersensitive TolC R367H mutant. T140A also reversed, either fully (R390C) or partially (I106N and S350F), the hypersensitivity phenotype of other TolC mutants. Our data suggest that this global suppressor phenotype of T140A is the result of impeded antibiotic influx caused by tapering of the tunnel passage rather than by correcting individual mutational defects. Two extragenic suppressors of TolC R367H , mapping in the regulatory region of acrAB, uncoupled the AcrR-mediated repression of the acrAB genes. The resulting overexpression of AcrAB reduced the hypersensitivity phenotype of all the TolC mutants. Similar results were obtained when the chromosomal acrR gene was deleted or the acrAB genes were expressed from a plasmid. Unlike the case for the intragenic suppressor T140A, the overexpression of AcrAB diminished hypersensitivity towards only erythromycin and novobiocin, which are substrates of the TolC-AcrAB efflux pump, but not towards vancomycin, which is not a substrate of this pump. This showed that the two types of suppressors produced their effects by fundamentally different means, as the intragenic suppressor decreased the general influx while extragenic suppressors increased the efflux of TolC-AcrAB pump-specific antibiotics.Escherichia coli cells lacking the outer membrane protein (OMP) TolC display hypersensitivity to a variety of inhibitors, including bile salts, detergents, and hydrophobic antibiotics (38). This was initially thought to be due to a defect in the outer membrane permeability barrier as a result of a defective lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (32). However, it was shown that tolC and rfa (LPS core) mutations produce an additive effect on hypersensitivity, thus suggesting that tolC mutations may confer hypersensitivity indepen...

SAMP1 and SAMP2 are ubiquitin-like proteins that function as protein modifiers and are required for the production of sulfur-containing biomolecules in the archaeon Haloferax volcanii. Here we report a novel small archaeal modifier protein (named SAMP3) with a ␤-grasp fold and C-terminal diglycine motif characteristic of ubiquitin that is functional in protein conjugation in Hfx. volcanii. SAMP3 conjugates were dependent on the ubiquitin-activating E1 enzyme homolog of archaea (UbaA) for synthesis and were cleaved by the JAMM/MPN؉ domain metalloprotease HvJAMM1. Twenty-three proteins (28 lysine residues) were found to be isopeptide-linked to the C-terminal carboxylate of SAMP3, and 331 proteins were reproducibly found associated with SAMP3 in a UbaA-dependent manner based on tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) analysis. The molybdopterin (MPT) synthase large subunit homolog MoaE, found samp3ylated at conserved active site lysine residues in MS/MS analysis, was also shown to be covalently bound to SAMP3 by immunoprecipitation and tandem affinity purifications. HvJAMM1 was demonstrated to catalyze the cleavage of SAMP3 from MoaE, suggesting a mechanism of controlling MPT synthase activity. The levels of samp3ylated proteins and samp3 transcripts were found to be increased by the addition of dimethyl sulfoxide to aerobically growing cells. Thus, we propose a model in which samp3ylation is covalent and reversible and controls the activity of enzymes such as MPT synthase. Sampylation of MPT synthase may govern the levels of molybdenum cofactor available and thus facilitate the scavenging of oxygen prior to the transition to respiration with molybdenum-cofactor-containing terminal reductases that use alternative electron acceptors such as dimethyl sulfoxide. Overall, our study of SAMP3 provides new insight into the diversity of functional ubiquitin-like protein modifiers and the network of ubiquitin-like protein targets in Archaea. Molecular & Cellular