title: PapR peptide maturation: role of the NprB protease in Bacillus cereus 569 PlcR/PapR global gene regulation.
abstract: The global transcriptional regulator PlcR controls gene expression in Bacillus cereus and Bacillus thuringiensis. Activity of PlcR is regulated by PapR, the product of an ORF located immediately downstream of plcR. To be active in B. cereus, PapR must be secreted and then processed to the mature peptide by an unknown protease. This peptide is transported by an oligopeptide permease into the cell, where it activates PlcR. In this study, we show that the neutral protease B (NprB) secreted by B. cereus 569 is required for extracellular PapR maturation. Purified recombinant NprB processed the synthetic PapR propeptide to produce a set of peptides derived from the C-terminal domain of PapR. Supplementation of growth media with synthetic PapR-derived C-terminal 5-, 7-, 8- and 27-amino acid (aa) peptides caused activation of intracellular PlcR in a PapR-deficient strain of B. cereus 569 while only the 5- and 7-aa peptides activated PlcR in a nprB mutant. The maximum activity was found for the 7-mer peptide. However, even the 7-mer peptide could not activate PlcR with a C-terminal truncation of as few as 6 aa. This indicates that interactions of the C-terminal regions of both PlcR and PapR are important in transcriptional activation of the B. cereus 569 PlcR regulon.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Bacterial Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-3202, USA.
authors.forename: Andrei P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Pomerantsev
authors.forename: Olga M
authors.initials: OM
authors.lastname: Pomerantseva
authors.forename: Andrew S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Camp
authors.forename: Radhika
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mukkamala
authors.forename: Stanley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Goldman
authors.forename: Stephen H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Leppla
mesh_terms: D001409:Bacillus cereus / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010450:Endopeptidases / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D017353:Gene Deletion; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D011499:Protein Processing, Post-Translational; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D013379:Substrate Specificity; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; C466079:PapR protein, Bacillus cereus; C099480:PlcR protein, Bacillus; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D015534:Trans-Activators; D010450:Endopeptidases; C023139:dispase