▪ Abstract Most prokaryotic signal-transduction systems and a few eukaryotic pathways use phosphotransfer schemes involving two conserved components, a histidine protein kinase and a response regul...

Two-component signal transduction

A specific protein, bound to DNA, can activate transcription of a wide array of genes in many eukaryotes. Further analysis suggests a general outline for how eukaryotic transcriptional activators function and are controlled.

How eukaryotic transcriptional activators work

PAS domains are newly recognized signaling domains that are widely distributed in proteins from members of the Archaea and Bacteria and from fungi, plants, insects, and vertebrates. They function as input modules in proteins that sense oxygen, redox potential, light, and some other stimuli. Specificity in sensing arises, in part, from different cofactors that may be associated with the PAS fold. Transduction of redox signals may be a common mechanistic theme in many different PAS domains. PAS proteins are always located intracellularly but may monitor the external as well as the internal environment. One way in which prokaryotic PAS proteins sense the environment is by detecting changes in the electron transport system. This serves as an early warning system for any reduction in cellular energy levels. Human PAS proteins include hypoxia-inducible factors and voltage-sensitive ion channels; other PAS proteins are integral components of circadian clocks. Although PAS domains were only recently identified, the signaling functions with which they are associated have long been recognized as fundamental properties of living cells.

PAS Domains: Internal Sensors of Oxygen, Redox Potential, and Light

The recruitment model for gene activation stipulates that an activator works by bringing the transcriptional machinery to the DNA. Recent experiments in bacteria and yeast indicate that many genes can be activated by this mechanism. These findings have implications for our understanding of the nature of activating regions and their targets, and for the role of histones in gene regulation.

Transcriptional activation by recruitment

Some bacteria have the remarkable capacity to fix atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia under ambient conditions, a reaction only mimicked on an industrial scale by a chemical process that requires high temperatures, elevated pressure and special catalysts. The ability of microorganisms to use nitrogen gas as the sole nitrogen source and engage in symbioses with host plants confers many ecological advantages, but also incurs physiological penalties because the process is oxygen sensitive and energy dependent. Consequently, biological nitrogen fixation is highly regulated at the transcriptional level by sophisticated regulatory networks that respond to multiple environmental cues.

Genetic regulation of biological nitrogen fixation

The NIFL regulatory protein controls transcriptional activation of nitrogen fixation (nif) genes in Azotobacter vinelandii by direct interaction with the enhancer binding protein NIFA. Modulation of NIFA activity by NIFL, in vivo occurs in response to external oxygen concentration or the level of fixed nitrogen. Spectral features of purified NIFL and chromatographic analysis indicate that it is a flavoprotein with FAD as the prosthetic group, which undergoes reduction in the presence of sodium dithionite. Under anaerobic conditions, the oxidized form of NIFL inhibits transcriptional activation by NIFA in vitro, and this inhibition is reversed when NIFL is in the reduced form. Hence NIFL is a redox-sensitive regulatory protein and may represent a type of flavoprotein in which electron transfer is not coupled to an obvious catalytic activity. In addition to its ability to act as a redox sensor, the activity of NIFL is also responsive to adenosine nucleotides, particularly ADP. This response overrides the influence of redox status on NIFL and is also observed with refolded NIFL apoprotein, which lacks the flavin moiety. These observations suggest that both energy and redox status are important determinants of nif gene regulation in vivo.

Azotobacter vinelandii NIFL is a flavoprotein that modulates transcriptional activation of nitrogen-fixation genes via a redox-sensitive switch.

The prokaryotic activator protein NTRC binds to enhancer-like elements and activates transcription in response to nitrogen limitation by catalysing open complex formation by sigma 54 RNA polymerase holoenzyme. Formation of open complexes requires the phosphorylated form of NTRC and the reaction is ATP dependent. We find that NTRC has an ATPase activity which is activated by phosphorylation and is strongly stimulated by the presence of DNA containing specific NTRC binding sites.

https://www.embopress.org/doi/pdf/10.1002/j.1460-2075.1992.tb05281.x

The prokaryotic enhancer binding protein NTRC has an ATPase activity which is phosphorylation and DNA dependent.

The ability of the Klebsiella pneumoniae nifL gene product to antagonise NIFA mediated transcriptional activation from the nifH promoter in vivo was inhibited either by metal deprivation, or by the presence of the iron chelators EDDA or Desferal in the growth medium. This inhibition of the repressive activity of NIFL was reversed by the addition of ferrous or manganous ions to the medium but was unaffected by other transition metals. The dependence on metal ions for NIFL activity was observed when NIFL was overexpressed and when cultures were exposed to oxygen or high levels of fixed nitrogen. Immunochemical evidence suggests that NIFL and NIFA associate to form a functional protein complex. Metal ions are apparently not required for the formation of this complex.

Role of metal ions in negative regulation of nitrogen fixation by the nifL gene product from Klebsiella pneumoniae

The prokaryotic enhancer-binding protein NifA stimulates transcription at a distance by binding to sequences upstream of nitrogen fixation (nif) promoters and catalyzing the formation of open promoter complexes by RNA polymerase containing the alternative sigma factor, sigma 54. The activity of NifA in vivo is modulated by the negative regulatory protein NifL in response to environmental oxygen and fixed nitrogen. To date, a detailed biochemical analysis of these proteins from the model diazotroph Klebsiella pneumoniae has been hindered by their insolubility. We have now purified NifA and NifL from Azotobacter vinelandii in their native form. NifA is competent in specific DNA binding, transcriptional activation, and response to negative regulation by NifL in vitro. In contrast to the conserved mechanism of phosphotransfer demonstrated by other two-component regulatory systems, our results support a model in which NifL regulates the activity of NifA via a protein-protein steric block interaction rather than a catalytic modification of NifA.

Purification and in vitro activities of the native nitrogen fixation control proteins NifA and NifL.

Activation of transcription at the Klebsiella pneumoniae nifLA promoter requires the phosphorylated form of the positive control protein NTRC, together with RNA polymerase modified by the alternative sigma factor sigma 54. Dimethylsulphate and potassium permanganate were used as probes to analyse the interaction of NTRC and sigma 54-RNA polymerase with supercoiled nifLA promoter DNA in vitro. In contrast to the glnAp2 promoter, sigma 54 holoenzyme did not protect guanine residues in the nifLA promoter from methylation in the absence of the activator. We propose that NTRC stabilizes the interaction of sigma 54-RNA polymerase with the -24, -12 region, in addition to its role in catalysing open complex formation. Phosphorylated NTRC binds to two sites located greater than 100 nucleotides upstream of the -24, -12 region; it also induces hyper-methylation of a G residue at -23. Enhanced methylation at -23 is not co-operative with the binding of activator to the upstream sites and may account for the ability of NTRC, when present at high concentration, to activate transcription in the absence of the upstream binding sites. The insertion of spacer mutations at -86 indicates that transcriptional activation of the nifLA promoter at low NTRC concentrations is face-of-the-helix dependent, both in vivo and in vitro. We propose that correct positioning of activator molecules at the upstream binding sites stabilizes the interaction of sigma 54-RNA polymerase with the downstream region via the formation of a DNA loop.

https://www.embopress.org/doi/pdf/10.1002/j.1460-2075.1989.tb08514.x

Transcriptional activation of the Klebsiella pneumoniae nifLA promoter by NTRC is face-of-the-helix dependent and the activator stabilizes the interaction of sigma 54-RNA polymerase with the promoter.

S. Austin

Papers

Azotobacter vinelandii NIFL is a flavoprotein that modulates transcriptional activation of nitrogen-fixation genes via a redox-sensitive switch.

The prokaryotic enhancer binding protein NTRC has an ATPase activity which is phosphorylation and DNA dependent.

Role of metal ions in negative regulation of nitrogen fixation by the nifL gene product from Klebsiella pneumoniae

Purification and in vitro activities of the native nitrogen fixation control proteins NifA and NifL.

Transcriptional activation of the Klebsiella pneumoniae nifLA promoter by NTRC is face-of-the-helix dependent and the activator stabilizes the interaction of sigma 54-RNA polymerase with the promoter.