title: The two-component lysis system of Staphylococcus aureus bacteriophage Twort: a large TTG-start holin and an associated amidase endolysin.
abstract: The lysis genes of the virulent Staphylococcus aureus bacteriophage Twort were cloned and their nucleotide sequences determined. The endolysin gene plyTW encodes a 53.3-kDa protein, whose catalytic site is located in the amino-terminal domain. An enzymatically active fragment (N-terminal 271 amino acids) was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and partially purified. The enzyme rapidly cleaves staphylococcal peptidoglycan, and was shown to act as N-acetylmuramoyl-L-alanine amidase (EC 3.5.1.28). Significant sequence homology to the specific cell wall targeting domain of lysostaphin was observed in a 101-amino acid C-terminal overlap. However, we found that the large C-terminal portion (63%, 295 aa) of PlyTW is not required for staphylolytic activity. Located upstream of and overlapping plyTW by 35 bp in a different reading frame (+1), we identified holTW, which starts with a single TTG triplet. The gene specifies a 185-amino acid (20.5 kDa) holin protein, which features two potential hydrophobic, antiparallel transmembrane domains, and a highly charged, acidic C-terminus. HolTW is the largest class II holin described to date. It can substitute for the defective allele in phase lambda S' amber mutants, both in trans from an expression plasmid, and from within gt11::holTW. The proposed function is the formation of unspecific membrane lesions to promote access of the endolysin to the bacterial peptidoglycan.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Mikrobiologie, Forschungszentrum für Milch und Lebensmittel Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, Freising, Germany. M.J.Loessner@lrz.tu-muenchen.de
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Loessner
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gaeng
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wendlinger
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Maier
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Scherer
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009238:N-Acetylmuramoyl-L-alanine Amidase / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013204:Staphylococcus Phages / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000821:virology; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D008565:Membrane Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins; C112934:holTW protein, Staphylococcus phage Twort; D009238:N-Acetylmuramoyl-L-alanine Amidase; C112935:PLYTW protein, Staphylococcus phage Twort