Bacteria possess mechanisms to establish communication between cells. This is especially important in bacterial conjugation, a process that allows bacteria to share genetic material. This is often used by bacteria to transfer antibiotic resistance genes and other virulence factors to neighbor cells, increasing the antibiotic resistance spread.
Now, a research team of ALBA scientists report the structural mechanism by which two proteins, Rap and Rco, act together to regulate conjugation. Rco is a repressor of conjugation, whereas Rap binds Rco and prevents Rco-mediated conjugation repression, thus resulting in an activation of the conjugation mechanism. The main results of the study show that Rap contains a binding pocket were a short peptide can bind, producing structural changes in Rap that forces its tetramerization, releasing Rco for blocking conjugation. Tetramerization occurs through an interaction that scientists named “foot-2-foot”, which differs significantly from the model proposed for other proteins of the Rap family.
Read more on the ALBA website
Image: RappLS20 tetramerization, side view of the peptide-bound tetramer. The red arrows indicate the loops connecting helices H4 and H5. (C) Zoom of the area around the N-terminus of helix H4, showing the insertion of this helix into the opposite monomer. The homotetramerization caused by the foot-2-foot interactions of the NTDs of RappLS20 provides an explanation for the activation of the RcopLS20 partner. In the absence of the peptide, the NTDs are positioned such that they allow the interaction with RcopLS20. However, upon binding the signaling peptide, the NTDs shift outwards, facilitating the formation of the homotetramer, leading to a change of the interaction surface of the NTDs that is no longer available for interactions with RcopLS20