Caulobacter lipid A is conditionally dispensable in the absence of fur and in the presence of anionic sphingolipids.

Lipid A, the membrane-anchored portion of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), is an essential component of the outer membrane (OM) of nearly all Gram-negative bacteria. Here we identify regulatory and structural factors that together render lipid A nonessential in Caulobacter crescentus. Mutations in the ferric uptake regulator fur allow Caulobacter to survive in the absence of either LpxC, which catalyzes an early step of lipid A synthesis, or CtpA, a tyrosine phosphatase homolog we find is needed for wild-type lipid A structure and abundance. Alterations in Fur-regulated processes, rather than iron status per se, underlie the ability to survive when lipid A synthesis is blocked. Fitness of lipid A-deficient Caulobacter requires an anionic sphingolipid, ceramide phosphoglycerate (CPG), which also mediates sensitivity to the antibiotic colistin. Our results demonstrate that, in an altered regulatory landscape, anionic sphingolipids can support the integrity of a lipid A-deficient OM.

Decoding capsule synthesis in Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Streptococcus pneumoniae synthesizes >100 types of capsular polysaccharides (CPSs). While the diversity of the enzymes and transporters involved is enormous, it is not limitless. In this review, we summarized the recent progress on elucidating the structure-function relationships of CPSs, the mechanisms by which they are synthesized, how their synthesis is regulated, the host immune response against them and the development of novel pneumococcal vaccines. Based on the genetic and structural information available, we generated provisional models of the CPS repeating units that remain unsolved. In addition, to facilitate cross-species comparisons and assignment of glycosyltransferases, we illustrated the biosynthetic pathways of the known CPSs in a standardized format. Studying the intricate steps of pneumococcal CPS assembly promises to provide novel insights for drug and vaccine development as well as improve our understanding of related pathways in other species.

Cell cycle-dependent adaptor complex for ClpXP-mediated proteolysis directly integrates phosphorylation and second messenger signals.

The cell-division cycle of Caulobacter crescentus depends on periodic activation and deactivation of the essential response regulator CtrA. Although CtrA is critical for transcription during some parts of the cell cycle, its activity must be eliminated before chromosome replication because CtrA also blocks the initiation of DNA replication. CtrA activity is down-regulated both by dephosphorylation and by proteolysis, mediated by the ubiquitous ATP-dependent protease ClpXP. Here we demonstrate that proteins needed for rapid CtrA proteolysis in vivo form a phosphorylation-dependent and cyclic diguanylate (cdG)-dependent adaptor complex that accelerates CtrA degradation in vitro by ClpXP. The adaptor complex includes CpdR, a single-domain response regulator; PopA, a cdG-binding protein; and RcdA, a protein whose activity cannot be predicted. When CpdR is unphosphorylated and when PopA is bound to cdG, they work together with RcdA in an all-or-none manner to reduce the Km of CtrA proteolysis 10-fold. We further identified a set of amino acids in the receiver domain of CtrA that modulate its adaptor-mediated degradation in vitro and in vivo. Complex formation between PopA and CtrA depends on these amino acids, which reside on alpha-helix 1 of the CtrA receiver domain, and on cdG binding by PopA. These results reveal that each accessory factor plays an essential biochemical role in the regulated proteolysis of CtrA and demonstrate, to our knowledge, the first example of a multiprotein, cdG-dependent proteolytic adaptor.

Peptidoglycan synthesis machinery in Agrobacterium tumefaciens during unipolar growth and cell division.

UNLABELLED: The synthesis of peptidoglycan (PG) in bacteria is a crucial process controlling cell shape and vitality. In contrast to bacteria such as Escherichia coli that grow by dispersed lateral insertion of PG, little is known of the processes that direct polar PG synthesis in other bacteria such as the Rhizobiales. To better understand polar growth in the Rhizobiales Agrobacterium tumefaciens, we first surveyed its genome to identify homologs of (~70) well-known PG synthesis components. Since most of the canonical cell elongation components are absent from A. tumefaciens, we made fluorescent protein fusions to other putative PG synthesis components to assay their subcellular localization patterns. The cell division scaffolds FtsZ and FtsA, PBP1a, and a Rhizobiales- and Rhodobacterales-specific l,d-transpeptidase (LDT) all associate with the elongating cell pole. All four proteins also localize to the septum during cell division. Examination of the dimensions of growing cells revealed that new cell compartments gradually increase in width as they grow in length. This increase in cell width is coincident with an expanded region of LDT-mediated PG synthesis activity, as measured directly through incorporation of exogenous d-amino acids. Thus, unipolar growth in the Rhizobiales is surprisingly dynamic and represents a significant departure from the canonical growth mechanism of E. coli and other well-studied bacilli. IMPORTANCE: Many rod-shaped bacteria, including pathogens such as Brucella and Mycobacteriu, grow by adding new material to their cell poles, and yet the proteins and mechanisms contributing to this process are not yet well defined. The polarly growing plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens was used as a model bacterium to explore these polar growth mechanisms. The results obtained indicate that polar growth in this organism is facilitated by repurposed cell division components and an otherwise obscure class of alternative peptidoglycan transpeptidases (l,d-transpeptidases). This growth results in dynamically changing cell widths as the poles expand to maturity and contrasts with the tightly regulated cell widths characteristic of canonical rod-shaped growth. Furthermore, the abundance and/or activity of l,d-transpeptidases appears to associate with polar growth strategies, suggesting that these enzymes may serve as attractive targets for specifically inhibiting growth of Rhizobiales, Actinomycetales, and other polarly growing bacterial pathogens.