Figure 3. Inducible protein degradation demonstrates requirement of ClpP2 for normal growth.

(A) Schematic representation of the inducible degradation system used to inducibly deplete ClpP2 (Msm strain clpP2_ID). Induction of HIV-2 protease with ATc leads to cleavage of the HIV-2 protease cutting site and exposure of a SsrA tag on the tagged protein. Cleavage by HIV-2 protease and subsequent degradation can be tracked via the FLAG (square) and c-myc (circle) epitope tags, respectively, included on the inducible degradation tag. (B) Degradation of ClpP2 in clpP2_ID was tracked by Western in the absence or presence of inducer ATc. Blots were probed α-FLAG (loss indicates HIV-2 protease cleavage), α-myc (loss indicates target degradation), and α-RpoB (loading control). (C) Growth curves of Msm clpP2_ID in the absence or presence (50 ng/mL) of inducer ATc. Msm clpP2_ID was also complemented with clpP2 in the presence of ATc. Data are represented as mean CFU/mL +/− standard deviation.