Structure and Mechanism of a Group-I Cobalt Energy Coupling Factor Transporter
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Cell Research (2017) 27:675-687. © 2017 IBCB, SIBS, CAS All rights reserved 1001-0602/17 $ 32.00 ORIGINAL ARTICLE www.nature.com/cr Structure and mechanism of a group-I cobalt energy coupling factor transporter Zhihao Bao1, 2, 3, *, Xiaofeng Qi1, 3, *, Sen Hong1, 3, Ke Xu1, 3, Fangyuan He1, Minhua Zhang1, Jiugeng Chen1, Daiyin Chao1, Wei Zhao4, Dianfan Li4, Jiawei Wang5, Peng Zhang1 1National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China; 2Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China; 3University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; 4State Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Center for Protein Sciences, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chi- nese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; 5State Key Laboratory of Membrane Biology, School of Life Sciences, Tsing- hua University, Beijing 100084, China Energy-coupling factor (ECF) transporters are a large family of ATP-binding cassette transporters recently iden- tified in microorganisms. Responsible for micronutrient uptake from the environment, ECF transporters are mod- ular transporters composed of a membrane substrate-binding component EcfS and an ECF module consisting of an integral membrane scaffold component EcfT and two cytoplasmic ATP binding/hydrolysis components EcfA/A’. ECF transporters are classified into groups I and II. Currently, the molecular understanding of group-I ECF transport- ers is very limited, partly due to a lack of transporter complex structural information. Here, we present structures and structure-based analyses of the group-I cobalt ECF transporter CbiMNQO, whose constituting subunits CbiM/ CbiN, CbiQ, and CbiO correspond to the EcfS, EcfT, and EcfA components of group-II ECF transporters, respec- tively. Through reconstitution of different CbiMNQO subunits and determination of related ATPase and transporter activities, the substrate-binding subunit CbiM was found to stimulate CbiQO’s basal ATPase activity. The structure of CbiMQO complex was determined in its inward-open conformation and that of CbiO in β, γ-methyleneadenosine 5′-triphosphate-bound closed conformation. Structure-based analyses revealed interactions between different compo- nents, substrate-gating function of the L1 loop of CbiM, and conformational changes of CbiO induced by ATP bind- ing and product release within the CbiMNQO transporter complex. These findings enabled us to propose a working model of the CbiMNQO transporter, in which the transport process requires the rotation or toppling of both CbiQ and CbiM, and CbiN might function in coupling conformational changes between CbiQ and CbiM. Keywords: ECF transporter; cobalt transporter; ATPase activity; ABC transporter; transport mechanism Cell Research (2017) 27:675-687. doi:10.1038/cr.2017.38; published online 21 March 2017 Introduction protein complexes that transport a variety of substrates across cell membranes. On the basis of the transport di- Powered by ATP hydrolysis, ATP-binding cassette rection, ABC transporters are categorized into importers (ABC) transporters comprise a large superfamily of and exporters, both of which are composed of two trans- membrane domains, and two nucleotide-binding domains (NBDs). Importers, usually found in prokaryotes, contain *These two authors contributed equally to this work. a periplasmic solute-binding protein (SBP) for substrate Correspondence: Peng Zhanga, Jiawei Wangb capture. Through extensive studies, a two state rock-and- aTel: +86 21 54924219 switch model has been suggested for ABC transporters E-mail: [email protected] b [1-8]. E-mail: [email protected] Received 23 December 2016; revised 8 February 2017; accepted 15 Febru- In recent years, a new family of ABC transporters, ary 2017; published online 21 March 2017 known as energy-coupling factor (ECF) transporters, Structure of a cobalt ECF transporter 676 have been identified in bacteria [9-12]. ECF transport- transporters are the widely distributed CbiMNQO and ers mediate micronutrient uptake and are composed of NikMNQO that uptake Co2+ and/or Ni2+, which are co- four components, two cytoplasmic ATPase components factors of a number of essential metabolic enzymes in EcfA and EcfA’, and two transmembrane components bacteria [28-30]. CbiMNQO/NikMNQO are composed namely EcfT for energy coupling and EcfS for substrate of M/N, Q, and O subunits, corresponding to the EcfS, recognition. The EcfT-EcfA-EcfA’ components com- EcfT, and EcfA components of group-II ECF transport- prise the ECF module (Figure 1A). To date two groups ers, respectively (Figure 1A). The structure of NikM2 in of ECF transporters have been identified, with group-I complex with Ni2+ has been reported [31], and compared ECF transporters being an EcfS protein associated with to group-II EcfS proteins, NikM2 contains an additional a dedicated ECF module and the encoding genes located N-terminal transmembrane helix and an extended loop within one operon. Group-II ECF transporters include essential for substrate coordination. This study suggests several EcfS proteins; their coding genes are distributed that group-I ECF transporters possess different sub- throughout the genome and they can bind to a common strate-binding mechanisms from that of group-II ECF ECF module [12]. In some group-I ECF transporters, the transporters. In addition, although the M subunit alone EcfS component is comprised of two proteins, M and N, can bind substrate, the transporter activity of CbiMN- which fuse together into one polypeptide MN in some QO/NikMNQO depends on the N subunit [32, 33]. The species [9]. The most striking divergence that sets ECF molecular understanding of group-I ECF transporters transporters apart from canonical ABC importers lies remains elusive, in part due to the lack of structural in- in the SBPs, such that ECF transporters utilize integral formation for the complete transporter complex. Here, membrane EcfS proteins for substrate binding, whereas structural and biochemical analyses of the CbiMNQO canonical ABC transporters utilize periplasmic SBPs to transporter complex are presented. Our results support capture substrates [13-16]. a rotation/toppling model and shed new lights on the Extensive studies have been carried out to dissect the mechanism of group-I ECF transporters. mechanism of ECF transporters, especially that of group- II transporters. The substrate-specific binding proteins Results of group-II ECF transporters, such as RibU, ThiT, BioY, and FolT, have very low sequence similarity, but they Characterization of CbiMNQO transporter adopt similar six-helical-bundle 3D structures [17-20]. The CbiMNQO transporter was characterized by ex- The high binding affinities of these EcfS proteins for pression of the transporter complex and combinations of their substrates [10, 21] are attributed to buried sub- different subunits in E. coli. Transporter activity was as- strate-binding pockets within the middle of transmem- sayed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrom- brane helices near the periplasmic side. Residues consti- etry (ICP-MS) (Figure 1B). The results showed that the tuting the substrate-binding pockets dictate the substrate complete CbiMNQO transporter possessed high cobalt specificity, and are highly conserved within a specific uptake activity, whereas a complex composed of CbiM EcfS across different species [22]. This forms a basis for and CbiN subunits exhibited low but significant activi- predicting the substrates for ECF transporters from dif- ty. Removal of CbiN demolished cobalt uptake activity, ferent species. consistent with a previous report [32]. CbiMNQO trans- The assembly of the EcfS component with the Ec- porter exhibited very low nickel uptake activity, about fAA’T module was not known until the inward-open 8% of that of cobalt, indicating that CbiMNQO is highly structures of ECF transporters were captured [23-25]. specific for cobalt. These structures reveal that EcfA/A’ components have By adding a 6× His tag to the CbiQ subunit, the trans- two NBDs that form a dimer required for ATP hydrolysis, porter complex was purified using affinity chromatog- and EcfT component acts like a scaffold that connects raphy. CbiM, CbiQ, and CbiO subunits were present in EcfS component with EcfA/A’ components, whereas substantial amounts (1/1/2 molar ratio), but amounts of EcfS components within the structures, without excep- the CbiN subunit were reduced after each purification tion, adopt conformations parallel to membrane planes. step (Figure 1C; Supplementary information, Figure S1). These studies provided a snapshot toward elucidating These results suggest that CbiM, CbiQ, and CbiO form scenarios of transport processes, and laid the foundation a stable subcomplex (CbiMQO) and that the interaction for a rotation/toppling model of group-II ECF transport- of CbiN with the subcomplex is weak and dynamic. The ers [22, 26, 27]. formation of a stable CbiMQO subcomplex was verified Compared to group-II ECF transporters, limited when the three subunits were coexpressed and purified in progress has been made in the understanding of group-I the absence of CbiN (Figure 1C). Interestingly, the pres- ECF transporters [9, 11]. The best known group-I ECF ence of CbiN appears