Pyruvate-converting activity in the spores of the microsporidian genus Paranosema (Antonospora) Viacheslav V. Dolgikh & Ruslan I. Al-Shekhadat Laboratory of Microbiological Control, All-Russian Institute for Plant Protection, St Petersburg, Russia Correspondence: Viacheslav V. Dolgikh, Abstract Laboratory of Microbiological Control, All- Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/femsle/article/259/1/142/453567 by guest on 03 October 2021 Russian Institute for Plant Protection, 3 Microsporidia, a large group of fungi-related protozoa with an obligate intracel- Podbelskogo Rd., Pushkin, St. Petersburg lular lifestyle, are characterized by a drastically reduced cell machinery and a 196608, Russia. Tel.: 17 812 4705110; fax: unique metabolism. These parasites possess genes encoding glycolysis components 17 812 4705110; e-mail: and glycerol-phosphate shuttle, but lack typical mitochondria, Krebs cycle, [email protected] respiratory chain and pyruvate-converting enzymes, except for two subunits of the E1 enzyme of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. This study demonstrates Received 8 December 2005; revised 28 March that in spite of the above, destroyed spores of the microsporidian Paranosema 2006; accepted 28 March 2006. (Antonospora) grylli and P. locustae deplete pyruvate content in the incubation First published online May 2006. medium. This activity is sensitive to heat, proportionally distributed between the doi:10.1111/j.1574-6968.2006.00259.x soluble and the insoluble fractions and does not depend on additional ions or cofactors. Editor: Claire Remacle Keywords microsporidia; spores; pyruvate metabolism; enzyme activity. the mitosome, rather than in the accumulation of glycerol- Introduction 3-phosphate as an end product of glycolysis. Thus, all trioses Microsporidia make up a large group of intracellular formed in glycolysis should be finally converted into pyr- eukaryotic parasites infecting a wide range of animals and uvate. At the same time, according to the data from the some protozoan species. Several genera are of medical human parasite Encephalitozoon cuniculi genome project, significance since they infect humans, mostly immunodefi- microsporidia lack any pyruvate-converting enzymes except cient patients. As a result of their intracellular lifestyle, these two subunits of the E1 component of the pyruvate dehydro- fungi-related parasites have lost lysosomes, peroxisomes, genase complex (PDH). Neither E2 nor E3 enzymes of PDH typical mitochondria, a classical Golgi complex, many were found in the microsporidial genome (Katinka et al., metabolic pathways and reduced their genome down to the 2001). The presence of genes encoding both E1 PDH minimal level possible (Katinka et al., 2001). Microsporidia subunits was also demonstrated for the distantly related to possess genes encoding enzymes of the Embden–Meyerhof E. cuniculi microsporidia Paranosema (Antonospora) locus- pathway, but lack tricarboxylic acid cycle and respiratory tae (Fast & Keeling, 2001). Recently, participation of micro- chain components. Since glycerol-3-P dehydrogenase (G- sporidial PDH E1 in the further metabolizing of pyruvate 3-PDH) has been shown to be a single potential enzyme was supported by the demonstration of expression of both reoxidizing NADH generated in glycolysis (Dolgikh et al., subunits in P. locustae spores (Williams & Keeling, 2005). 1997; Katinka et al., 2001), glycerol-3-phosphate was con- In this study, we have shown that destroyed spores of the sidered as an end product of anaerobic catabolism. However, microsporidian Paranosema (Antonospora) grylli deplete in addition to G-3-PDH, the second (mitochondrial) com- pyruvate content in the incubation medium. This activity ponent of glycerol-phosphate shuttle was found in micro- was sensitive to heat, present in soluble and insoluble sporidial genome (Katinka et al., 2001). Furthermore, fractions and did not require any additional ions or cofac- mitochondria-derived cryptic organelles called ‘mitosomes’ tors. However, dialysis of spore proteins followed by pre- were described in the microsporidian Trachipleistophora cipitation with 80% ammonium sulphate caused enzyme hominis (Williams et al., 2002). This suggests that G- inactivation. Broken spores of the closely related species 3-PDH participates in the transportation of electrons into P. locustae demonstrate a similar rate of pyruvate-converting c 2006 Federation of European Microbiological Societies FEMS Microbiol Lett 259 (2006) 142–146 Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved Pyruvate-converting activity in Paranosema (Antonospora) 143 activity in both soluble and insoluble fractions. These at 4 1C and 1.4 mL of supernatant was loaded onto the findings suggest the presence of a functional protein in column. Equilibration of the column and elution was microsporidial spores. The reaction catalysed by this enzyme carried out with TS. An eluted volume corresponding to could be oxidative decarboxylation of pyruvate with free the unconfined space of the column (2 mL) was discarded acetate production. and the next 1.5 mL was collected for specific activity determination. Materials and methods For dialysis and precipitation with ammonium sulphate (SA), 0.5 mL of P. grylli spore pellet was destroyed in 6 mL of Microsporidial spores 50 mM Tris-HCl pH 8.0 containing 0.5 mM PMSF, 0.5 mM EDTA-Na2, 0.5 mM 2-ME and centrifuged at 300 000 g for To avoid bacterial contamination, Paranosema grylli and 20 min. The supernatant was dialyzed against 1 L of 10 mM Paranosema locustae spores were isolated from freshly pre- Tris-HCl pH 8.0 containing 50 mM NaCl, 0.05 mM PMSF, Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/femsle/article/259/1/142/453567 by guest on 03 October 2021 pared fat bodies of artificially infected crickets Gryllus 0.1 mM EDTA-Na2, 0.1 mM 2-ME overnight at 4 1C. Dia- bimaculatus and locusts Locusta migratoria. Mature spores lyzed proteins were precipitated by addition of small por- were purified as described previously (Seleznev et al., 1995; tions of dry SA (Serva, Germany) up to 80% on the ice bath Dolgikh et al., 1997). The quality of spore purification was with gentle stirring and pH control. The suspension was checked under a light microscope. Purified spores were stored for 4 days at 4 1C and centrifuged at 3000 g for destroyed by shaking with 2.5 mm glass balls (Bio-Rad) on 20 min. The pellet was resuspended in 20 mM Tris-Cl pH a Vortex shaker at 4 1C for 30 min in Buffer A (50 mM Tris- 7.8, 80% SA with the volume brought up to 1/10 of that of Cl pH 8.0) containing 0.5 mM phenylmethanesulfonyl the SA suspension and pyruvate-converting activity was fluoride (PMSF), 0.5 mM EDTA-Na2, 0.5 mM 2-mercap- determined in the pellet and in the supernatant. The toethanol (2-ME) or in Tris-sucrose solution (TS, 50 mM calculated concentration of SA in activity assay medium Tris-Cl pH 8.0, 0.25 M sucrose). The suspension of broken was 2% in the case of pellet and 20% in the case of spores was centrifuged as mentioned in Results and pellets supernatant. Protein concentrations were determined by were resuspended in the same solution, with the volume the Bradford method (Bradford, 1976). brought up to that of the final supernatant. Pyruvate-converting activity assay Results and discussion Spore homogenate, supernatant or resuspended pellet were For the first experiment, freshly isolated spores of the mixed with an equal volume of 50 mM potassium phosphate microsporidian P. grylli and P. locustae were destroyed in Buffer A and pyruvate-converting activity was measured in buffer (pH 7.5) containing 10 mM MgCl2, 0.4 mM pyru- the spore homogenate. It was determined that incubation of vate-Na2 (Serva, Germany) to obtain a final concentration of 0.2 mM pyruvate. The buffer used for protein extraction or spore proteins in the presence of 0.2 mM pyruvate (final centrifuge pellet resuspension was added in the control concentration) for 16 h at room temperature caused the disappearance of about 0.4 mmol of substrate per 100 mLof tubes. Reaction mixtures were incubated for 16 h (over- 9 night) at room temperature or for 1 h at 30 1C, boiled for spore pellet (1.5 Â 10 spores). To obtain further informa- 10 min with subsequent sedimentation of denatured materi- tion, P. grylli spores were broken in the isotonic TS solution al by centrifugation. Pyruvate content in the supernatant and centrifuged at 3000 g for 20 min. Some supernatant and 1 was measured by enzymatic method at a wavelength of the pellet resuspended in TS were incubated at 100 C for 340 nm using lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) activity. The 10 min before addition to the activity assay medium. This assay mixture comprised 50 mM Tris-Cl pH 7.5, 1.3 mM heat treatment completely inactivated the putative enzyme NADH (Reanal, Hungary), 3 U mLÀ1 LDH (ICN, CA) and in the supernatant and in the pellet. Total and specific (per the aliquot of supernatant. The differential molar extinction mg protein) activities were found to be comparable in both of NADH and NAD at 340 nm equalled 6220 MÀ1 cmÀ1. fractions (Table 1). To investigate the distribution of pyruvate-converting activity in the cell, P. grylli spores destroyed in TS were Heating, gel filtration, dialysis and ammonium centrifuged in series at 100 g for 10 min, at 3000 g for 20 min sulphate precipitation of P. grylli spore proteins and finally at 300 000 g for 20 min. Analysis of centrifuge The heating of samples was carried out by boiling for 10 min fractions showed once more the sedimentation of about half before the activity assay. The desalting of the spore extract of the total activity at 3000 g for 20 min. However, another was performed on a Sephadex G-25 column 1.5 Â 5cm part of the activity was not pelleted even by high-speed (Pharmacia), according to the manufacturer’s instructions. ultracentrifugation (Table 2), suggesting that the enzyme is Spores broken in TS were centrifuged at 13 000 g for 30 min soluble.