One evolutionarily selected amino acid variation is sufficient to provide functional specificity in the cold shock protein paralogs of Staphylococcus aureus

Bacterial genomes encode several families of protein paralogs. Discrimination between functional divergence and redundancy among paralogs is challenging due to their sequence conservation. Here, we investigated whether the amino acid differences present in the cold shock protein (CSP) paralogs of Staphylococcus aureus were responsible for functional specificity. Since deletion of cspA reduces the synthesis of staphyloxanthin (STX), we used it as an in vivo reporter of CSP functionality. Complementation of a ΔcspA strain with the different S. aureus CSP variants showed that only CspA could specifically restore STX production by controlling the activity of the stress-associated sigma B factor (σ). To determine the amino acid residues responsible for CspA specificity, we created several chimeric CSPs that interchanged the amino acid differences between CspA and CspC, which shared the highest identity. We demonstrated that CspA Pro58 was responsible for the specific control of σ activity and its associated phenotypes. Interestingly, CspC gained the biological function of CspA when the E58P substitution was introduced. This study highlights how just one evolutionarily selected amino acid change may be sufficient to modify the specific functionality of CSP paralogs.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Catalán Moreno, Arancha, Caballero Sánchez, Carlos José, Irurzun, Naiara, Cuesta, Sergio, Lopez-Sagaseta, Jacinto, Toledo-Arana, Alejandro
Other Authors: European Research Council
Format: artículo biblioteca
Published: John Wiley & Sons 2020-04
Subjects:Cold shock proteins, CspA, Protein paralogs, Protein specificity, RNA chaperone, Staphylococcus aureus,
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/227978
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100011033
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000780
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000781
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003329
http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100007680
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