Crosstalk between bacterial chemotaxis signal transduction proteins and regulators of transcription of the Ntr regulon: Evidence that nitrogen ...

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Proc. Nati. Acad. Sci. USA
                                      Vol. 85, pp. 5492-5496, August 1988
                                      Biochemistry

                                      Crosstalk between bacterial chemotaxis signal transduction
                                      proteins and regulators of transcription of the Ntr regulon:
                                      Evidence that nitrogen assimilation and chemotaxis are
                                      controlled by a common phosphotransfer mechanism
                                           (protein kinase/transcriptional activation/glutamine synthetase)
                                      ALEXANDER J. NINFA*, ELIZABETH GOTTLIN NINFA*, ANDREI N. LUPAS*, ANN STOCK*,
                                      BORIS MAGASANIKt, AND JEFF STOCK*t
                                      *Department of Molecular   Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540; and tDepartment of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
                                      Cambridge, MA 02149
                                      Contributed by Boris Magasanik, April 13, 1988

                                      ABSTRACT          We demonstrate by using purified bacterial                           In the bacterial chemotaxis system the modulator protein
                                      components that the protein kinases that regulate chemotaxis                        CheA is a protein kinase that acts to phosphorylate two
                                      and transcription of nitrogen-regulated genes, CheA and NRII,                       effector proteins: CheY, which interacts with the flagellar
                                      respectively, have cross-specificities: CheA can phosphorylate                      motor to control swimming behavior (8), and CheB, a
                                      the Ntr transcription factor NRI and thereby activate tran-                         methylesterase that controls receptor methylation and thus
                                      scription from the nitrogen-regulated ginA promoter, and NRII                       sensitivity of the chemotactic sensory system (A.N.L. and
                                      can phosphorylate CheY. In addition, we find that a high                            J.S., unpublished data). Just as in the nitrogen regulatory
                                      intracellular concentration of a highly active mutant form of                       system, the chemotaxis phosphorylation reactions proceed
                                      NRII can suppress the smooth-swimming phenotype of a cheA                           via a high-energy phosphokinase intermediate (8, 9).
                                      mutant. These results argue strongly that sensory transduction                         Since the homologous regulators NRII and CheA both
                                      in the Ntr and Che systems involves a common protein phos-                          apparently exert their effects by means of a mechanism
                                      photransfer mechanism.                                                              involving protein phosphorylation, we examined the possi-
                                                                                                                          bility that these proteins may function by a common mech-
                                      Bacteria respond to changes in the availability of nutrients                        anism. In this report, we demonstrate that purified NRII and
                                      such as nitrogen, phosphate, and oxygen; changes in medium                          CheA can each catalyze the phosphorylation of the hetero-
                                                                                                                          logous substrates CheY and NRI. Furthermore, we demon-
                                      osmolarity; and gradients of chemotactic stimuli by means of                        strate that NRI phosphate formed by the action of CheA is
                                      a family of homologous signal transduction systems (1-4).                           able to activate transcription from the nitrogen-regulated
                                      These signal transduction systems each contain two inter-                           promoter glnAp2 in vitro. We also demonstrate with intact
                                      acting proteins with conserved domains, a modulator protein                         cells that a high intracellular concentration of an activated
                                      that processes sensory information and an effector protein                          form of NRII can suppress the smooth-swimming phenotype
                                      that is activated by the modulator to produce an appropriate                        of a cheA mutant. Finally, we show that, as was observed
                                      adaptive response. The modulators all contain a homologous                          previously for phosphoryl-CheA (8), the phosphorylated
                                      C-terminal domain of -200 residues, and the effectors all                           group in the high-energy phosphokinase intermediate phos-
                                      share a homologous N-terminal domain of z130 residues.                              phoryl-NR1j is apparently phosphohistidine. On the basis of
                                      N-terminal portions of the modulators and C-terminal por-                           these results, we propose that the homologies between
                                      tions of the effectors have apparently diverged to provide the                      conserved modulator and effector proteins reflect conserved
                                      appropriate responses to different environmental stimuli.                           kinase and phosphoacceptor functions.
                                      With the exception of the chemotaxis system, all of the
                                      related effectors are transcriptional activators.                                                MATERIALS AND METHODS
                                         In two systems, the modulator and effector proteins have
                                      been purified and their mechanism of interaction has been                              Materials and Radioisotopes. All buffers, salts, electropho-
                                      established. Enteric bacteria regulate the expression of                            resis reagents, and nucleotides were standard commercially
                                      nitrogen-regulated (Ntr) genes by responding to changing                            obtained products of reagent or analytical grade and were
                                      ratios of 2-ketoglutarate and glutamine (5). Information on                         used without further purification. Radioisotopes were from
                                      this ratio is communicated to the modulator protein, desig-                         Amersham ([a-32P]UTP), and New England Nuclear/Du-
                                      nated NRII or NtrB, which controls the activity of the                              Pont (Uy-32P]ATP). DE52 resin was from Whatman, enzyme
                                      effector, designated NRI or NtrC (6). It has been shown that                        grade ammonium sulfate was from Calbiochem, Sephadex
                                      NRII is a protein kinase that catalyzes an ATP-dependent                            G-50 and the MONO-Q FPLC column were from Pharmacia,
                                      phosphorylation of NRI (7). In its phosphorylated form, NRI                         and the GF-200 FPLC column was from Sota (Crompond,
                                      acts as a transcriptional activator at nitrogen-regulated pro-                      NY).
                                      moters, such as that which precedes the glutamine synthetase                           Purified Proteins. Bovine serum albumin fraction V and
                                      gene, glnAp2. NRII kinase activity involves the formation of                        ovalbumin were from Sigma. Salmonella typhimurium CheA
                                      a high-energy phosphorylated enzyme intermediate, phos-                             and CheY were purified as described (1, 3). Each of these
                                      phoryl-NRII, with subsequent phosphotransfer to NRI (V.                             purified proteins is at least 95% pure as estimated by
                                      Weiss and B.M., unpublished data).                                                  inspection of Coomassie blue-stained NaDodSO4/polyacryl-
                                                                                                                          amide protein gels. The preparations of Escherichia coli
                                      The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge          NRII, NRI, 54, and core RNA polymerase obtained- previ-
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                                      payment. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement"
                                      in accordance with 18 U.S.C. §1734 solely to indicate this fact.                    *To whom reprint requests should be addressed.
                                                                                                                   5492
Biochemistry: Ninfa et al.                                               Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85 (1988)            5493

                                      ously (refs. 10 and 11; A.J.N., E. Brodsky, and B.M.,                       ChA                    +          1    +      -
                                      unpublished data) were used. Each of these proteins with the               NR1          +               +     +          +
                                      exception of core RNA polymerase is also >90% pure, as                     NRII              +          +          +     +
                                      estimated from Coomassie blue-stained gels. The core RNA
                                      polymerase preparation has been shown to contain no NRI1                                         El
                                      activity (A.J.N. and B.M., unpublished data). Phosphoryl-                  ChaA-
                                      CheA and phosphoryl-NRI, were prepared from the purified                   NRI -
                                      CheA and NRII by autophosphorylation in the presence of
                                      [y-32P]ATP, followed by chromatography on a 25-ml Seph-                    NRI-
                                      adex G-50 column in 0.1 M sodium phosphate (pH 7.0) to
                                      remove free nucleotides.
                                         Transcription Assay. The transcription buffer was 50 mM
                                      Tris HCl, pH 7.5/50 mM NaCl/10 mM MgCl2/0.1 mM
                                      EDTA/1 mM dithiothreitol. Details of the assay are as              FIG. 1. Phosphorylation of NRI by CheA and NRII. Proteins were
                                      described (11) except that the [a-32P]UTP was at twice the       incubated in transcription buffer (20 ,u) for 3 min at 37°C, 5 ul of
                                      specific activity used in previous experiments. The transcrip-   [y32P]ATP (final concentration, 0.4 mM; 2 Ci/mmol) was added, and
                                                                                                       the incubation was continued for 5 min, after which time 8.3 ,ul of gel
                                      tion template was supercoiled pTH8 (12), a derivative of         sample buffer [124 mM Tris-HCI, pH 6.8/4% NaDodSO4/8%
                                      pTE103 (13) in which the glnAp2 promoter is positioned =300      (vol/vol) 2-mercaptoethanol/20% (vol/vol) glycerol] was added to
                                      base pairs upstream from a strong rho-independent termina-       each reaction mixture. Samples were heated to 60°C for 1 min and
                                      tor from bacteriophage T7. The assay measures the formation      applied directly to a 1o Laemmli-type protein gel (16). The
                                      of heparin-resistant transcription complexes formed in the       autoradiograph of the protein gel is shown. Protein concentrations:
                                      absence of added UTP, the first nucleotide in the glnAP2         (where indicated) NRI, 2.7 ,uM; NRII, 80 nM; CheA, 9.3 ,uM.
                                      transcript. Template, proteins, buffer, and the nucleotides
                                      ATP, CTP, and GTP were incubated at 37°C for 30 min,             NRII was present than when CheA was present. These
                                      during which time transcription complexes were formed.           findings suggest that CheA can catalyze the phosphorylation
                                      Heparin and labeled UTP were then added and the samples          of NR, by ATP, but not as effectively as NRII.
                                      were incubated an additional 10 min to allow the production         Activation of Transcription from the Nitrogen-Regulated
                                      of full-length transcripts from transcription complexes; the     Promoter glnAp2 by CheA-Generated NR,-Phosphate. Is the
                                      reactions were then terminated by the addition of EDTA and       NRI-phosphate formed by CheA able to activate transcrip-
                                      the radioactive transcripts were recovered by ethanol pre-       tion from the nitrogen-regulated promoter gInAp2? Previous
                                      cipitation, subjected to electrophoresis in denaturing           results had indicated that transcription from glnAp2 requires
                                      urea/polyacrylamide gels, and detected by autoradiography.       RNA polymerase containing a54 instead of the usual ou7O (12,
                                          Determination of the Chemical Stability of the Phosphoryl-   17). This transcription is activated by NR,-phosphate but not
                                       ated Group in Phosphoryl-NRII. This assay was performed as      by unphosphorylated NRI (7). It has also been shown that at
                                       described for phosphoryl-CheA (8). Aliquots of phosphoryl-      low concentrations of NRI, transcription from glnAp2 is
                                       NRII (4 ,u, 1 pmol) were applied to duplicate 1-cm squares of   greatly facilitated by the presence on the template of two sites
                                       Immobilon polyvinylidene difluoride membrane (Millipore),       to which NR, and NRI-phosphate bind (glnA enhancers),
                                       which were then incubated under the following conditions: (i)   located about 100 and 130 base pairs upstream from the site
                                       0.2 M sodium citrate, pH 2.4, 45°C; (ii) 50 mM potassium        of transcript initiation (18). When supercoiled templates
                                       phosphate, pH 7.0; (iii) 2 M sodium hydroxide, pH 13.5,         containing the enhancers are used in the transcription assay,
                                       45°C; (iv) 0.4 M hydroxylamine hydrochloride, pH 7.6, 25°C;     very low concentrations of NRI (-1 nM) can readily be
                                       (v) 0.1 M pyridine, 25°C. Membrane squares were removed         detected (ref. 11; A.J.N. and B.M., unpublished data). To
                                       at 15, 30, 60, 90, and 120 min, rinsed in water, dried, and     increase the sensitivity of the assay even further, we doubled
                                       counted in Liquiscint (National Diagnostics) fluor in a Beck-   the specific activity of the labeled UTP used in previous
                                       man LS-230 liquid scintillation counter. First-order rate       experiments. We used these most sensitive reaction condi-
                                       constants were estimated from linear regression analysis of     tions to examine whether CheA could substitute for NRI1 in
                                       the raw data.                                                   activating NRI and, by so doing, activate transcription from
                                          Characterization of Swimming Behavior. Strains were sub-     glnAp2. In these reaction conditions a small amount of the
                                       cultured in L broth medium (14) and grown to midlogarithmic     glnAp2 transcript was produced by the or" RNA polymerase
                                       phase at 37°C. Small aliquots were then diluted 1:10 into        in the absence of added factors, and the addition of NRI and
                                       motility buffer (50 mM KCl/10 mM KH2PO4, pH 7/0.1 mM             NRII to the reaction mixture resulted in a huge increase in the
                                       EDTA/0.5 uM L-methionine) and incubated for at least 15          amount of glnAp2 transcript produced (Fig. 2), as had been
                                       min at room temperature, after which swimming behavior           noted (10, 12). The combination of CheA and NRI was clearly
                                       was recorded at x 400 magnification with a Zeiss phase-          able to stimulate transcription from glnAp2 by or54 RNA
                                       contrast microscope, Ikegami ITC-510 video camera, and a         polymerase, while neither CheA nor NRI alone stimulated
                                       Panasonic NV8950 video recorder. The video recordings            transcription. This result shows that the small amount of NRI
                                       were analyzed as described (15).                                 phosphate formed by CheA and ATP is functionally equiv-
                                                                                                        alent to that formed by NRII and ATP.
                                                               RESULTS                                     Transfer of Phosphate from Phosphoryl-CheA to NRI. We
                                                                                                        next tested the ability of purified phosphoryl-CheA to trans-
                                         CheA Catalyzes the ATP-Dependent Phosphorylation of            fer its phosphate to NRI in the absence of ATP. We prepared
                                      NRI. We examined the ability of NR11 and CheA to catalyze         phosphoryl-CheA by gel filtration chromatography after
                                      the phosphorylation of NRI (Fig. 1). Both CheA and NRII           allowing the phosphorylation reaction to occur in the pres-
                                       were phosphorylated in the presence of ATP, and no label         ence of [y-32P]ATP and measured the time course of transfer
                                       was incorporated into NRI in the absence of other proteins.      of labeled phosphate from phosphoryl-CheA preparation to
                                       In Fig. 1, the intensity of the phosphorylated CheA band is      transfer phosphate to the natural substrate, CheY, and to
                                       much greater than that of the autophosphorylated NR1I band       ovalbumin. We also tested whether NRI, could serve as a
                                       because more CheA protein was used. NRI was phosphoryl-          substrate for phosphotransfer. NRI catalyzed the dephos-
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                                       ated in reaction mixtures that contained ATP and either NRII     phorylation of phosphoryl-CheA via a phosphoryl-NRI in-
                                       or CheA. Much more NRI-phosphate was produced when               termediate (Fig. 3A). After 1 hr of incubation in the presence
5494
                                                    Eu54
                                                    CheA
                                                    NRI
                                                    NR11
                                                             +

                                                             +

                                                             i.t
                                                             _.

                                                             _

                                                             -
                                                             _:
                                                             _

                                                             ,
                                                                  +

                                                                  +

                                                             1 2 3 4
                                                                      .
                                                             __. -w;i_.
                                                  Biochemistry: Ninfa et al.
                                                                             +
                                                                             +

                                                                         .......

                                                                      d*.,   .gd,..

                                                                         ,.,ig.
                                                                             .; l,
                                                                             .: g
                                                                                      +
                                                                                      +
                                                                                      +
                                                                                          +
                                                                                          +
                                                                                          +

                                                                                          5
                                                                                               +
                                                                                               +
                                                                                               +

                                                                                               6
                                         FIG. 2. Activation of transcription from glnAp2 by CheA-
                                                                                                   +
                                                                                                   +
                                                                                                   +

                                                                                                   7
                                                                                                       +

                                                                                                       8

                                      generated NR, phosphate. The autoradiograph of a transcription gel
                                      is shown. All reaction mixtures contained template at 5 nM, o54 at 400
                                      nM, and core RNA polymerase at 100 nM. Other protein concen-
                                      trations are as follows: lane 1, NRI at 185 nM and NR1I at 20 nM; lane
                                      2, NRI at 370 nM; lane 3, CheA at 4.6 ,uM; lane 4, NRI at 185 nM and
                                      CheA at 4.6 ,uM; lane 5, NRI at 185 nM and CheA at 9.3 ,uM; lane
                                      6, NR, at 370 nM and CheA at 9.3 uM; lane 7, NRI at 185 nM, NRII
                                      at 20 nM, and CheA at 4.6 ,4M; lane 8, no NRI, NRII, or CheA
                                                                                                                                   Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85 (1988)

                                                                                                                 phosphoryl-CheA was nearly complete after 30 sec. We did
                                                                                                                 not detect any transfer of phosphate from phosphoryl-CheA
                                                                                                                 to NR,, (Fig. 3B) or to ovalbumin.
                                                                                                                    Transfer of Phosphate from Phosphoryl-NRI, to CheY.
                                                                                                                 Phosphoryl-NR,,, prepared by gel filtration after phospho-
                                                                                                                 rylation by labeled ATP, was dephosphorylated by CheY
                                                                                                                 with the formation of a phosphoryl-CheY intermediate (Fig.
                                                                                                                 4A). Maximal labeling of CheY was observed within 30 sec
                                                                                                                 after the addition of CheY to a reaction mixture containing
                                                                                                                 phosphoryl-NR,,, and phosphoryl-NRI was almost com-
                                                                                                                 pletely dephosphorylated after 4.5 min of incubation in this
                                                                                                                 reaction mixture. In the absence of CheY, phosphoryl-NRI,
                                                                                                                 was almost entirely stable for this period of time. Transfer of
                                                                                                                 phosphate from phosphoryl-NRI, to NRI was more efficient;
                                                                                                                 in this case, dephosphorylation of phosphoryl-NR11 was
                                                                                                                 essentially complete within 30 sec (Fig. 4B). In control
                                                                                                                 experiments, we did not detect any transfer of phosphate
                                                                                                                 from phosphoryl-NR1, to bovine serum albumin or to CheA.
                                                                                                                    Effect of Overproducing NRII on the Swimming Behavior of
                                                                                                                 a cheA Mutant. It has been proposed that phosphoryl-CheY
                                                                                                                 interacts with the flagellar motor to cause tumbly behavior
                                                                                                                 (8). Mutants in cheA are unable to tumble, presumably
                                                                                                                 because they are deficient in phosphoryl-CheY. We exam-
                                                                                                                 ined whether or not an increased intracellular concentration
                                      present.                                                                   of NRII could suppress the smooth-swimming phenotype of
                                                                                                                 a cheA mutant. For these experiments, we used a plasmid,
                                      of NR,, most of the phosphate from phosphoryl-CheA had                     pTH814, that causes the overproduction (to -1% of cell
                                      been released in a low molecular weight form that runs at the              protein) of a mutant form of NR,,, NR112302 (10). Previous
                                      dye front of the acrylamide gel, but in the absence of NRI the             results had indicated that in intact cells NR112302 causes the
                                      phosphoryl-CheA was almost entirely stable for this period of              activation of glnA transcription in the presence of ammonia
                                      time. The transfer of phosphate from phosphoryl-CheA to                    (19); analysis of the activity of purified NR112302 had indi-
                                      CheY was very rapid; in that case dephosphorylation of                     cated that this protein, unlike wild-type NRII, will catalyze
                                                                                                                 the phosphorylation of NR, in the presence of the Ntr signal
                                             A                                                                   transduction protein that acts as the intracellular signal of
                                                                  ChM-P + NRI  ChA-P                             nitrogen excess (7). We introduced pTH814 and the parent
                                             min at 370C      0 7.5 15 30 60 15 30 60                            vector pBR322 into S. typhimurium strains containing cheA
                                                                                                                       A
                                                                                                                                           NRII-P + CheY       NRII-P
                                                 ChA -                                                                min at 300C       0 0.5 1.5 4.5 13.5 0.5 1.5 4.5 13.5
                                                                                                                                                                               V:
                                                  NR-
                                                                                                                            NRI-
                                                                                                                           CheY
                                             0                           ChA-P +
                                                                CheY NRI      NRII                                    B
                                             min at 370C      0 0.5 0.5 7.5 0.5 7.5                                                              NRII-P   +
                                                                                          ....i
                                                                                      ......
                                                                                                                                           NRI    CheY        Ch.A
                                                                                                                      min at 300C       0 0.5 0.5 5 0.5 5
                                                 CheA -                                                                    Ch.A    -
                                                  NRI                                                                       NRI    -

                                                 NRii   -                                                                   NRII   -

                                                 CheY                                                                      CheY

                                        FIG. 3. Transfer of phosphate from phosphoryl-CheA to NRI and              FIG. 4. Transfer of phosphate from phosphoryl-NR,, to CheY
                                      CheY. (A) Time course of phosphotransfer to NRI. Purified phos-            and NR,. (A) Time course of phosphotransfer to CheY. Purified
                                      phoryl-CheA (final concentration, 85 nM) was incubated in a buffer         phosphoryl-NR,, (final concentration, 300 nM) was incubated in 0.1
                                      containing 82 mM Tris-HCI, 82 mM NaCl, 12 mM potassium                     M potassium phosphate buffer, pH 7.0/5 mM MgCl2 at 30°C for 30
                                      phosphate, 10 mM MgCl2, 1.6 mM dithiothreitol, and 0.16 mM EDTA            sec, after which either CheY (final concentration, 71 MM) or buffer
                                      (pH.7.5) at 37°C with either NRI (final concentration, 12 ,M) or           was added to a final vol of 50 Ml. At the indicated times, 10-MLI samples
                                      buffer in a final vol of 105 ,ul. At the indicated times, 25-Mul samples   were removed, added to sample buffer, and subjected to electro-
                                      were removed, added to 8.3 ul of sample buffer, and subjected to           phoresis and autoradiography (see legend to Fig. 1). (B) Comparison
                                      electrophoresis and autoradiography (see legend to Fig. 1). (B)            of phosphotransfer to NR,, CheY, and CheA. The experiment is
                                      Comparison of phosphotransfer to CheY, NRII, and NRI. The                  similar to that shown in A except that phospho-NR,, was present at
                                      experiment is similar to that shown in A except that the phosphoac-        168 nM and the phosphoaccepting species were varied as indicated.
                                      cepting species was varied as indicated. Protein concentrations were       Protein concentrations were as follows: NRI, 1.5 MM; CheY, 34,uM;
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                                      as follows: CheY, 85 nM; NRI, 12 MM; NRII, 2.6 ,uM.                        CheA, 17 MM.
Biochemistry: Ninfa et al.                                              Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85 (1988)          5495

                                      and che Y mutations, and we determined the swimming                Table 2. Chemical stability of phosphorylated group in phos-
                                      behavior of these strains and their parents as well as of the      phoryl-NRII, phosphoryl-CheA, and phosphoryl-enzyme I
                                      wild-type strain. We found that pTH814, but not pBR322,                                      Rate of hydrolysis, kl min-1
                                      suppressed the smooth-swimming phenotype of the cheA
                                      mutant (Table 1). The cheA mutant containing pTH814                       Condition      NRII*        CheAt        Enzyme It
                                      tumbled even more than wild type; swimming behavior was                    pH 2.4        0.017         0.021          0.025
                                      uncoordinated, with many extended runs and tumbles lasting                 pH 7.0§       0.001         0.000          0.008
                                      up to 10 sec. The effect of pTH814 was entirely dependent on              pH 13.5         0.003         0.000        0.008
                                      the presence of CheY. These findings suggest that the                     NH20H           0.022         0.014        0.041
                                      CheY-phosphate formed from phosphoryl-NRI, is function-                   Pyridine        0.020         0.009        0.031
                                      ally equivalent to that formed from phosphoryl-CheA.               *This study.
                                         The Phosphorylated Group in Phosphoryl-CheA and Phos-           tData from ref. 8.
                                      phoryl-NRI, Have Similar Chemical Stability and Are Proba-         tData from ref. 20.
                                      bly Phosphohistidine. We examined the stability of the phos-       §Enzyme I was examined at pH 6.5 (20); CheA      and NR,, were
                                      phorylated group in phosphoryl-NRI, in the presence of              examined at pH 7.0 (ref. 8; this study).
                                      hydroxlyamine and pyridine, and at pH 2.4 (citrate buffer),
                                      pH 7.0 (phosphate buffer), and pH 13.5 (sodium hydroxide).            Crosstalk between heterologous modulator/effector pairs
                                      We found that the phosphorylated group was stable at neutral       provides an explanation for the complex phenotypes often
                                      or alkaline pH but was relatively unstable in acid (Table 2).      associated with modulator mutations. These include phoM-
                                      Pyridine and hydroxylamine both catalyzed the dephos-              dependent expression ofphoA in phoR mutants (26), residual
                                      phorylation reaction. These results are very similar to those      regulation of gInA in mutants lacking NRII (27), and the
                                      obtained previously with phosphoryl-CheA and phosphoryl-           tumbly swimming behavior of cheA mutants in which CheY
                                      enzyme I of the phosphotransferase system (8, 20). The             is overproduced from a multicopy plasmid with a strong
                                      phosphoryl group in phosphoryl-enzyme I has been shown to          promoter (28). Whether or not crosstalk between heterolo-
                                      be a 3-phosphohistidine (20).                                      gous modulator/effector pairs actually occurs in wild-type
                                                                                                         cells under normal physiological conditions is at this time not
                                                                                                         known. Our results raise the possibility that the family of
                                                             DISCUSSION                                  related modulator/effector pairs may constitute a network of
                                      The results presented in this report indicate that the homol-      sensory transducers that process information to coordinate
                                      ogous modulator proteins NR,, and CheA utilize a common            cellular responses to environmental stimuli.
                                      phosphotransfer mechanism to regulate the activity of their          We thank Austin Newton for his advice and support, and David
                                      corresponding effectors, NR, and CheY. This conclusion is          Wylie and Thomas Chen for their technical assistance. This work
                                      based on our ability to observe crosstalk between heterolo-        was supported by grants from the Public Health Service (AI-20980)
                                      gous modulator/effector pairs with purified bacterial com-         and American Cancer Society (NP-515). A.S. was supported by a
                                      ponents and on the effect that overproducing NRII has on the       grant from the Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Research
                                      swimming behavior of a cheA mutant. The apparent chemical          Fund (DRG-933).
                                      identity of the phosphate group in the high-energy phospho-
                                      kinase intermediates tends to confirm this conclusion.              1. Stock, A., Koshland, D. E., Jr., & Stock, J. B. (1985) Proc.
                                        In light of our findings, it seems likely that the homologies        Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 82, 7989-7993.
                                      between modulator proteins reflect conserved protein kinase         2. Ronson, C. W., Nixon, D. T. & Ausubel, F. M. (1987) Cell 49,
                                      function and that the homologies between effector proteins             579-581.
                                                                                                          3. Stock, A., Chen, T., Welsh, D. & Stock, J. B. (1988) Proc.
                                      reflect conserved phosphoacceptor activities. Thus, for in-            Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 85, 1403-1407.
                                      stance, in phosphate regulation (21), PhoR is probably a            4. Stock, J. B. (1987) BioEssays 6, 199-203.
                                      phosphate-regulated kinase and PhoB is a phosphorylated             5. Magasanik, B. (1982) Annu. Rev. Genet. 6, 135-168.
                                      transcription factor; in osmoregulation of porin expression         6. Bueno, R., Pahel, G. & Magasanik, B. (1985) J. Bacteriol. 164,
                                      (22), EnvZ is probably a kinase that phosphorylates OmpR;              816-822.
                                      and in regulation of the Dct regulon (23), DctB probably            7. Ninfa, A. J. & Magasanik, B. (1986) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
                                      phosphorylates DctD. Moreover, we can now predict that                 USA 83, 5909-5913.
                                      one or more kinases functions to phosphorylate SpoOA and            8. Wylie, D., Stock, A. M., Wong, C.-Y. & Stock, J. B. (1988)
                                      SpoOF to control sporulation of Bacillus subtilis (24); simi-          Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 151, 891-8%.
                                                                                                          9. Hess, J. F., Oosawa, K., Matsumura, P. & Simon, M. I. (1987)
                                      larly, the Arc repressor that controls the expression of               Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 84, 7609-7613.
                                      tricarboxylic acid cycle enzymes in E. coli (25) is probably       10. Ninfa, A. J., Ueno-Nishio, S., Hunt, T. P., Robustell, B. &
                                      regulated by a kinase that processes information concerning            Magasanik, B. (1986) J. Bacteriol. 168, 1002-1004.
                                      the availability of environmental oxygen.                          11. Ninfa, A. J., Reitzer, L. J. & Magasanik, B. (1987) Cell 50,
                                                                                                             1039-1046.
                                      Table 1. A high intracellular concentration of NR112302 sup-       12. Hunt, T. P. & Magasanik, B. (1985) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
                                      presses the smooth-swimming phenotype of a cheA mutant                  USA 82, 8453-8457.
                                                                                                         13. Elliot, T. & Geiduschek, E. P. (1984) Cell 36, 211-219.
                                                                                           Average       14. Miller, J. H., ed. (1972) Experiments in Molecular Genetics
                                                                  No.      % smooth duration, sec            (Cold Spring Harbor Lab., Cold Spring Harbor, NY), p. 433.
                                          Strain     Plasmid examined swimming Run Tumble                15. Stock, J., Borczuk, A., Chiou, F. & Burchenal, J. E. B. (1985)
                                                                                                             Proc. NatI. Acad. Sci. USA 82, 8364-8368.
                                      PSi (wt)                      20          89        2.1    0.26    16. Laemmli, U. K. (1970) Nature (London) 227, 680-685.
                                      PS34 (cheA)                   20         >99      >10.0     ND     17. Hirshman, J., Wong, P. K., Sei, K., Keener, J. & Kustu, S.
                                      PS34           pBR322         20         >99      >10.0     ND         (1985) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 82, 7525-7529.
                                      PS34           pTH814        105          69        2.3     1.10   18. Reitzer, L. J. & Magasanik, B. (1986) Cell 45, 785-792.
                                       PS257 (cheY)                  20         >99   >10.0     ND       19. Chen, Y. M., Backman, K. & Magasanik, B. (1982) J. Bacte-
                                       PS257         pBR322          20         >99   >10.0     ND           riol. 150, 214-229.
                                                                                                         20. Weigel, N., Kukuruzinska, M. A., Nakazawa, A., Waygood,
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                                       PS257         pTH814          20         >99   >10.0     ND            E. B. & Roseman, S. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 14477-14491.
                                         ND, no detectable tumbly   behavior.                            21. Wanner, B. L. (1987) in Escherichia coli and Salmonella
5496     Biochemistry: Ninfa et al.                                             Proc. Nadl. Acad. Sci. USA 85 (1988)
                                          typhimurium, ed. Neidhardt, F. C. (Am. Soc. Microbiol.,       25. luchi, S. & Lin, E. C. C. (1988) Proc. Nati. Acad. Sci. USA 85,
                                          Washington, DC), Vol. 2, pp. 1326-1333.                           1888-1892.
                                      22. Slauch, J. M., Garrett, S., Jackson, D. E. & Silhavy, T. J.   26. Wanner, B. L., Wilmes, M. R. & Young, D. C. (1988) J.
                                          (1988) J. Bacteriol. 170, 439-441.                                Bacteriol. 170, 1092-1102.
                                      23. Ronson, C. W. Astwood, P. M., Nixon, B. T. & Ausubel,         27. Backman, K. C., Chen, Y. M., Ueno-Nishio, S. & Magasanik,
                                          F. M. (1987) Ni cleic Acids Res. 15, 7921-7950.                   B. (1983) J. Bacteriol. 154, 516-519.
                                      24. Losick, R., Youngman, P. & Piggot, P. J. (1986) Annu. Rev.    28. Clegg, D. 0. & Koshland, D. E., Jr. (1984) Proc. Nati. Acad.
                                          Genet. 20, 625-670.                                               Sci. USA 81, 5056-5060.
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