title: Characterization of YvcJ, a conserved P-loop-containing protein, and its implication in competence in Bacillus subtilis.
abstract: The uncharacterized protein family UPF0042 of the Swiss-Prot database is predicted to be a member of the conserved group of bacterium-specific P-loop-containing proteins. Here we show that two of its members, YvcJ from Bacillus subtilis and YhbJ, its homologue from Escherichia coli, indeed bind and hydrolyze nucleotides. The cellular function of yvcJ was then addressed. In contrast to results recently obtained for E. coli, which indicated that yhbJ mutants strongly overproduced glucosamine-6-phosphate synthase (GlmS), comparison of the wild type with the yvcJ mutant of B. subtilis showed that GlmS expression was quite similar in the two strains. However, in mutants defective in yvcJ, the transformation efficiency and the fraction of cells that expressed competence were reduced. Furthermore, our data show that YvcJ positively controls the expression of late competence genes. The overexpression of comK or comS compensates for the decrease in competence of the yvcJ mutant. Our results show that even if YvcJ and YhbJ belong to the same family of P-loop-containing proteins, the deletion of corresponding genes has different consequences in B. subtilis and in E. coli.
authors.affiliation: UPR, Institut de Biologie Structurale et Microbiologie, CNRS, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luciano
authors.forename: Elodie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Foulquier
authors.forename: Jean-Raphael
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Fantino
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Galinier
authors.forename: Frédérique
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pompeo
mesh_terms: D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate / Q000378:metabolism*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D005945:Glutamine-Fructose-6-Phosphate Transaminase (Isomerizing) / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D006160:Guanosine Triphosphate / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D010766:Phosphorylation; D011487:Protein Conformation; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; C093539:ComS protein, Bacillus subtilis; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C524677:YhbJ protein, E coli; C087449:comK protein, Bacillus subtilis; D006160:Guanosine Triphosphate; D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate; D005945:Glutamine-Fructose-6-Phosphate Transaminase (Isomerizing)