title: Divergent genetic control of protein solubility and conformational quality in Escherichia coli.
abstract: In bacteria, protein overproduction results in the formation of inclusion bodies, sized protein aggregates showing amyloid-like properties such as seeding-driven formation, amyloid-tropic dye binding, intermolecular beta-sheet architecture and cytotoxicity on mammalian cells. During protein deposition, exposed hydrophobic patches force intermolecular clustering and aggregation but these aggregation determinants coexist with properly folded stretches, exhibiting native-like secondary structure. Several reports indicate that inclusion bodies formed by different enzymes or fluorescent proteins show detectable biological activity. By using an engineered green fluorescent protein as reporter we have examined how the cell quality control distributes such active but misfolded protein species between the soluble and insoluble cell fractions and how aggregation determinants act in cells deficient in quality control functions. Most of the tested genetic deficiencies in different cytosolic chaperones and proteases (affecting DnaK, GroEL, GroES, ClpB, ClpP and Lon at different extents) resulted in much less soluble but unexpectedly more fluorescent polypeptides. The enrichment of aggregates with fluorescent species results from a dramatic inhibition of ClpP and Lon-mediated, DnaK-surveyed green fluorescent protein degradation, and it does not perturb the amyloid-like architecture of inclusion bodies. Therefore, the Escherichia coli quality control system promotes protein solubility instead of conformational quality through an overcommitted proteolysis of aggregation-prone polypeptides, irrespective of their global conformational status and biological properties.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Department of Genetics and Microbiology and CIBER-BBN Networking Centre on Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: García-Fruitós
authors.forename: Mónica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martínez-Alonso
authors.forename: Nuria
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gonzàlez-Montalbán
authors.forename: Minoska
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Valli
authors.forename: Diethard
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mattanovich
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Villaverde
mesh_terms: D003600:Cytosol / Q000378:metabolism*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D018840:HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D018869:Heat-Shock Response; D002479:Inclusion Bodies; D018832:Molecular Chaperones / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009154:Mutation; D011489:Protein Denaturation; D017510:Protein Folding; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D012995:Solubility
chemical_list: D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D018840:HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins; D018832:Molecular Chaperones