Dimerization of VirD2 binding protein is essential for Agrobacterium induced tumor formation in plants

PLoS Pathog. 2014 Mar 13;10(3):e1003948. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1003948. eCollection 2014 Mar.

Abstract

The Type IV Secretion System (T4SS) is the only bacterial secretion system known to translocate both DNA and protein substrates. The VirB/D4 system from Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a typical T4SS. It facilitates the bacteria to translocate the VirD2-T-DNA complex to the host cell cytoplasm. In addition to protein-DNA complexes, the VirB/D4 system is also involved in the translocation of several effector proteins, including VirE2, VirE3 and VirF into the host cell cytoplasm. These effector proteins aid in the proper integration of the translocated DNA into the host genome. The VirD2-binding protein (VBP) is a key cytoplasmic protein that recruits the VirD2-T-DNA complex to the VirD4-coupling protein (VirD4 CP) of the VirB/D4 T4SS apparatus. Here, we report the crystal structure and associated functional studies of the C-terminal domain of VBP. This domain mainly consists of α-helices, and the two monomers of the asymmetric unit form a tight dimer. The structural analysis of this domain confirms the presence of a HEPN (higher eukaryotes and prokaryotes nucleotide-binding) fold. Biophysical studies show that VBP is a dimer in solution and that the HEPN domain is the dimerization domain. Based on structural and mutagenesis analyses, we show that substitution of key residues at the interface disrupts the dimerization of both the HEPN domain and full-length VBP. In addition, pull-down analyses show that only dimeric VBP can interact with VirD2 and VirD4 CP. Finally, we show that only Agrobacterium harboring dimeric full-length VBP can induce tumors in plants. This study sheds light on the structural basis of the substrate recruiting function of VBP in the T4SS pathway of A. tumefaciens and in other pathogenic bacteria employing similar systems.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Agrobacterium tumefaciens / chemistry*
  • Agrobacterium tumefaciens / metabolism
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Bacterial Proteins / chemistry*
  • Bacterial Proteins / metabolism
  • Bacterial Secretion Systems / physiology*
  • Calorimetry
  • Circular Dichroism
  • Crystallography, X-Ray
  • Host-Parasite Interactions
  • Kalanchoe / parasitology
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Plant Tumors / parasitology*
  • Protein Multimerization* / physiology

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins
  • Bacterial Secretion Systems

Grants and funding

This work was partially supported by a Biomedical Research Council Grant (WBS R154000461305) from the Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, awarded to JS. AP is a graduate scholar in receipt of a research scholarship from the National University of Singapore (NUS). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.