title: Insights into the cellular function of YhdE, a nucleotide pyrophosphatase from Escherichia coli.
abstract: YhdE, a Maf-like protein in Escherichia coli, exhibits nucleotide pyrophosphatase (PPase) activity, yet its cellular function remains unknown. Here, we characterized the PPase activity of YhdE on dTTP, UTP and TTP and determined two crystal structures of YhdE, revealing 'closed' and 'open' conformations of an adaptive active site. Our functional studies demonstrated that YhdE retards cell growth by prolonging the lag and log phases, particularly under stress conditions. Morphology studies showed that yhdE-knockout cells transformed the normal rod shape of wild-type cells to a more spherical form, and the cell wall appeared to become more flexible. In contrast, YhdE overexpression resulted in filamentous cells. This study reveals the previously unknown involvement of YhdE in cell growth inhibition under stress conditions, cell-division arrest and cell-shape maintenance, highlighting YhdE's important role in E. coli cell-cycle checkpoints.
authors: College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors: Jin
authors: J
authors: Jin
authors: College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors: Ruijuan
authors: R
authors: Wu
authors: College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors: Jia
authors: J
authors: Zhu
authors: College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors: Shaoyuan
authors: S
authors: Yang
authors: College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors: Zhen
authors: Z
authors: Lei
authors: College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors: Nan
authors: N
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Vinay K
authors: VK
authors: Singh
authors: College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors: Jimin
authors: J
authors: Zheng
authors: College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China; Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
authors: Zongchao
authors: Z
authors: Jia
mesh_terms: D059447:Cell Cycle Checkpoints / Q000502:physiology*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D055785:Gene Knockdown Techniques; D011755:Pyrophosphatases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D011755:Pyrophosphatases; C021899:nucleotide pyrophosphatase