Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Journal of Bacteriology logoLink to Journal of Bacteriology
. 1990 Apr;172(4):1791–1797. doi: 10.1128/jb.172.4.1791-1797.1990

The HtrA (DegP) protein, essential for Escherichia coli survival at high temperatures, is an endopeptidase.

B Lipinska 1, M Zylicz 1, C Georgopoulos 1
PMCID: PMC208670  PMID: 2180903

Abstract

As a preliminary step in the understanding of the function of the Escherichia coli HtrA (DegP) protein, which is indispensable for bacterial survival only at elevated temperatures, the protein was purified and partially characterized. The HtrA protein was purified from cells carrying the htrA gene cloned into a multicopy plasmid, resulting in its overproduction. The sequence of the 13 N-terminal amino acids of the purified HtrA protein was determined and was identical to the one predicted for the mature HtrA protein by the DNA sequence of the cloned gene. Moreover, the N-terminal sequence showed that the 48-kilodalton HtrA protein is derived by cleavage of the first 26 amino acids of the pre-HtrA precursor polypeptide and that the point of cleavage follows a typical target sequence recognized by the leader peptidase enzyme. The HtrA protein was shown to be a specific endopeptidase which was inhibited by diisopropylfluorophosphate, suggesting that HtrA is a serine protease.

Full text

PDF
1791

Images in this article

1792FIG. 1
on p.1792
1793FIG. 2
on p.1793
1794FIG. 3
on p.1794
1795FIG. 4
on p.1795
1796FIG. 5
on p.1796

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Ananthan J., Goldberg A. L., Voellmy R. Abnormal proteins serve as eukaryotic stress signals and trigger the activation of heat shock genes. Science. 1986 Apr 25;232(4749):522–524. doi: 10.1126/science.3083508. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Baker T. A., Grossman A. D., Gross C. A. A gene regulating the heat shock response in Escherichia coli also affects proteolysis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Nov;81(21):6779–6783. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.21.6779. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bond J. S., Butler P. E. Intracellular proteases. Annu Rev Biochem. 1987;56:333–364. doi: 10.1146/annurev.bi.56.070187.002001. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Brenner S. The molecular evolution of genes and proteins: a tale of two serines. Nature. 1988 Aug 11;334(6182):528–530. doi: 10.1038/334528a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Burnette W. N. "Western blotting": electrophoretic transfer of proteins from sodium dodecyl sulfate--polyacrylamide gels to unmodified nitrocellulose and radiographic detection with antibody and radioiodinated protein A. Anal Biochem. 1981 Apr;112(2):195–203. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(81)90281-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Cavard D., Lazdunski C., Howard S. P. The acylated precursor form of the colicin A lysis protein is a natural substrate of the DegP protease. J Bacteriol. 1989 Nov;171(11):6316–6322. doi: 10.1128/jb.171.11.6316-6322.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Charette M. F., Henderson G. W., Markovitz A. ATP hydrolysis-dependent protease activity of the lon (capR) protein of Escherichia coli K-12. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1981 Aug;78(8):4728–4732. doi: 10.1073/pnas.78.8.4728. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Chung C. H., Goldberg A. L. The product of the lon (capR) gene in Escherichia coli is the ATP-dependent protease, protease La. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1981 Aug;78(8):4931–4935. doi: 10.1073/pnas.78.8.4931. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Erickson J. W., Gross C. A. Identification of the sigma E subunit of Escherichia coli RNA polymerase: a second alternate sigma factor involved in high-temperature gene expression. Genes Dev. 1989 Sep;3(9):1462–1471. doi: 10.1101/gad.3.9.1462. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Erickson J. W., Vaughn V., Walter W. A., Neidhardt F. C., Gross C. A. Regulation of the promoters and transcripts of rpoH, the Escherichia coli heat shock regulatory gene. Genes Dev. 1987 Jul;1(5):419–432. doi: 10.1101/gad.1.5.419. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Goff S. A., Casson L. P., Goldberg A. L. Heat shock regulatory gene htpR influences rates of protein degradation and expression of the lon gene in Escherichia coli. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Nov;81(21):6647–6651. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.21.6647. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Goff S. A., Goldberg A. L. Production of abnormal proteins in E. coli stimulates transcription of lon and other heat shock genes. Cell. 1985 Jun;41(2):587–595. doi: 10.1016/s0092-8674(85)80031-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Goldberg A. L. Degradation of abnormal proteins in Escherichia coli (protein breakdown-protein structure-mistranslation-amino acid analogs-puromycin). Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1972 Feb;69(2):422–426. doi: 10.1073/pnas.69.2.422. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Gottesman S., Zipser D. Deg phenotype of Escherichia coli lon mutants. J Bacteriol. 1978 Feb;133(2):844–851. doi: 10.1128/jb.133.2.844-851.1978. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Hawkes R., Niday E., Gordon J. A dot-immunobinding assay for monoclonal and other antibodies. Anal Biochem. 1982 Jan 1;119(1):142–147. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(82)90677-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Keller J. A., Simon L. D. Divergent effects of a dnaK mutation on abnormal protein degradation in Escherichia coli. Mol Microbiol. 1988 Jan;2(1):31–41. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1988.tb00004.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Lipinska B., Fayet O., Baird L., Georgopoulos C. Identification, characterization, and mapping of the Escherichia coli htrA gene, whose product is essential for bacterial growth only at elevated temperatures. J Bacteriol. 1989 Mar;171(3):1574–1584. doi: 10.1128/jb.171.3.1574-1584.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Lipinska B., Sharma S., Georgopoulos C. Sequence analysis and regulation of the htrA gene of Escherichia coli: a sigma 32-independent mechanism of heat-inducible transcription. Nucleic Acids Res. 1988 Nov 11;16(21):10053–10067. doi: 10.1093/nar/16.21.10053. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Matsudaira P. Sequence from picomole quantities of proteins electroblotted onto polyvinylidene difluoride membranes. J Biol Chem. 1987 Jul 25;262(21):10035–10038. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Parsell D. A., Sauer R. T. The structural stability of a protein is an important determinant of its proteolytic susceptibility in Escherichia coli. J Biol Chem. 1989 May 5;264(13):7590–7595. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Strauch K. L., Beckwith J. An Escherichia coli mutation preventing degradation of abnormal periplasmic proteins. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1988 Mar;85(5):1576–1580. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.5.1576. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Strauch K. L., Johnson K., Beckwith J. Characterization of degP, a gene required for proteolysis in the cell envelope and essential for growth of Escherichia coli at high temperature. J Bacteriol. 1989 May;171(5):2689–2696. doi: 10.1128/jb.171.5.2689-2696.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Straus D. B., Walter W. A., Gross C. A. Escherichia coli heat shock gene mutants are defective in proteolysis. Genes Dev. 1988 Dec;2(12B):1851–1858. doi: 10.1101/gad.2.12b.1851. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Suzuki H., Nishimura Y., Yasuda S., Nishimura A., Yamada M., Hirota Y. Murein-lipoprotein of Escherichia coli: a protein involved in the stabilization of bacterial cell envelope. Mol Gen Genet. 1978 Nov 16;167(1):1–9. doi: 10.1007/BF00270315. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Wang Q. P., Kaguni J. M. A novel sigma factor is involved in expression of the rpoH gene of Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 1989 Aug;171(8):4248–4253. doi: 10.1128/jb.171.8.4248-4253.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Zipser D., Bhavsar P. Missense mutations in the lacZ gene that result in degradation of beta-galactosidase structural protein. J Bacteriol. 1976 Sep;127(3):1538–1542. doi: 10.1128/jb.127.3.1538-1542.1976. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Bacteriology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES