Abstract
Streptococcus pyogenes (Group A Streptococcus or GAS) is a hemolytic human pathogen associated with a wide variety of infections ranging from minor skin and throat infections to life-threatening invasive diseases. The cell wall of GAS consists of peptidoglycan sacculus decorated with a carbohydrate comprising a polyrhamnose backbone with immunodominant N-acetylglucosamine side-chains. All GAS genomes contain the spyBA operon, which encodes a 35-amino-acid membrane protein SpyB, and a membrane-bound C3-like ADP-ribosyltransferase SpyA. In this study, we addressed the function of SpyB in GAS. Phenotypic analysis of a spyB deletion mutant revealed increased bacterial aggregation, and reduced sensitivity to β-lactams of the cephalosporin class and peptidoglycan hydrolase PlyC. Glycosyl composition analysis of cell wall isolated from the spyB mutant suggested an altered carbohydrate structure compared with the wild-type strain. Furthermore, we found that SpyB associates with heme and protoporphyrin IX. Heme binding induces SpyB dimerization, which involves disulfide bond formation between the subunits. Thus, our data suggest the possibility that SpyB activity is regulated by heme.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-13-2016
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2016.00126
Funding Information
This work was supported by NIH grants 1R21AI113253 from the NIAID and 2P20 RR020171 from the National Center for Research Resources (to NK). Glycosyl composition analysis at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center was supported by the Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy grant (DE-FG02-93ER20097) to PA. We also acknowledge the University of Kentucky Viral Production Core that is partially supported by grant P20GM103486 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
Related Content
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcimb.2016.00126
Repository Citation
Edgar, Rebecca J.; Chen, Jing; Kant, Sashi; Rechkina, Elena; Rush, Jeffrey S.; Forsberg, Lennart S.; Jaehrig, Bernhard; Azadi, Parastoo; Tchesnokova, Veronika; Sokurenko, Evgeni V.; Zhu, Haining; Korotkov, Konstantin V.; Pancholi, Vijay; and Korotkova, Natalia, "SpyB, a Small Heme-Binding Protein, Affects the Composition of the Cell Wall in Streptococcus pyogenes" (2016). Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Faculty Publications. 92.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/biochem_facpub/92
Supplementary Material: Table S1-S6, Figure S1-S10
Included in
Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons, Microbiology Commons, Pathology Commons
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, v. 6, article 126, p. 1-18.
Copyright © 2016 Edgar, Chen, Kant, Rechkina, Rush, Forsberg, Jaehrig, Azadi, Tchesnokova, Sokurenko, Zhu, Korotkov, Pancholi and Korotkova.
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