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. 2022 Jun 28;13(3):e0379721.
doi: 10.1128/mbio.03797-21. Epub 2022 Apr 26.

Sculpting the Bacterial O-Glycoproteome: Functional Analyses of Orthologous Oligosaccharyltransferases with Diverse Targeting Specificities

Affiliations

Sculpting the Bacterial O-Glycoproteome: Functional Analyses of Orthologous Oligosaccharyltransferases with Diverse Targeting Specificities

Chris Hadjineophytou et al. mBio. .

Abstract

Protein glycosylation systems are widely recognized in bacteria, including members of the genus Neisseria. In most bacterial species, the molecular mechanisms and evolutionary contexts underpinning target protein selection and the glycan repertoire remain poorly understood. Broad-spectrum O-linked protein glycosylation occurs in all human-associated species groups within the genus Neisseria, but knowledge of their individual glycoprotein repertoires is limited. Interestingly, PilE, the pilin subunit of the type IV pilus (Tfp) colonization factor, is glycosylated in Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria meningitidis but not in the deeply branching species N. elongata subsp. glycolytica. To examine this in more detail, we assessed PilE glycosylation status across the genus and found that PilEs of commensal clade species are not modified by the gonococcal PglO oligosaccharyltransferase. Experiments using PglO oligosaccharyltransferases from across the genus expressed in N. gonorrhoeae showed that although all were capable of broad-spectrum protein glycosylation, those from a deep-branching group of commensals were unable to support resident PilE glycosylation. Further glycoproteomic analyses of these strains using immunoblotting and mass spectrometry revealed other proteins differentially targeted by otherwise remarkably similar oligosaccharyltransferases. Finally, we generated pglO allelic chimeras that begin to localize PglO protein domains associated with unique substrate targeting activities. These findings reveal previously unappreciated differences within the protein glycosylation systems of highly related bacterial species. We propose that the natural diversity manifest in the neisserial protein substrates and oligosaccharyltransferases has significant potential to inform the structure-function relationships operating in these and related bacterial protein glycosylation systems. IMPORTANCE Although general protein glycosylation systems have been well recognized in prokaryotes, the processes governing their distribution, function, and evolution remain poorly understood. Here, we have begun to address these gaps in knowledge by comparative analyses of broad-spectrum O-linked protein glycosylation manifest in species within the genus Neisseria that strictly colonize humans. Using N. gonorrhoeae as a well-defined model organism in conjunction with comparative genomics, intraspecies gene complementation, and glycoprotein phenotyping, we discovered clear differences in both glycosylation susceptibilities and enzymatic targeting activities of otherwise largely conserved proteins. These findings reveal previously unappreciated differences within the protein glycosylation systems of highly related bacterial species. We propose that the natural diversity manifest within Neisseria species has significant potential to elucidate the structure-function relationships operating in these and related systems and to inform novel approaches to applied glycoengineering strategies.

Keywords: Neisseria; evolution; glycoproteins; oligosaccharides; pili.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

FIG 1
FIG 1
Structural alignment and features of defined and candidate neisserial PilE pilin subunits. The cleavage site for processing to mature pilin is marked with an arrow at the conserved Gly−1Phe+1 junction residues. Residues present in at least 10 of the 11 PilE orthologs are highlighted in blue, and established sites of glycan attachment are highlighted in red. Glycopeptides identified in this study are underlined in red (see also Fig. S3). The strains used to generate these data are listed in Table S1A.
FIG 2
FIG 2
Neisserial Tfp pilins vary in glycosylation susceptibility when expressed in N. gonorrhoeae. Immunoblots were performed using equal amounts of bacterial whole-cell lysates. (Top panel) Samples probed with a polyclonal antiserum raised against purified N. gonorrhoeae pili from strain MS11. (Bottom panel) The same samples as in the top panel probed with the glycan-specific monoclonal antibody. The strains used are (from left to right) CH24, CH16, CH12, CH78, CH8, CH20, CH28, CH32, CH36, CH4, KS122, and CH114.
FIG 3
FIG 3
Maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree of neisserial pglO alleles. The tree was based on a MUSCLE alignment (66) and was constructed in MEGA X (67) using the Tamura-Nei model (68). Species-representative alleles from N. gonorrhoeae MS11 and N. meningitidis FAM18 were included for reference (green and black open circles, respectively). Alleles of pglO expressed in N. gonorrhoeae for the glycosylation complementation experiments are marked with a star. The tree was inferred using 114 sequences at 2,052 sites and replicated 500 times. Bootstrap values with <80% confidence are excluded from the final figure. The strains used can be found in Table S1C.
FIG 4
FIG 4
Oligosaccharyltransferases from Neisseria species support broad-spectrum glycosylation when expressed in N. gonorrhoeae. (Top panel) Samples probed with a glycan-specific monoclonal antibody. (Bottom panel) The same samples as in the top panel probed with a polyclonal antiserum raised against purified N. gonorrhoeae PilE. The strains used are (from left to right) CH66, CH65, CH63, CH64, CH59, CH60, CH62, CH61, CH48, CH47, and KS127. Two asterisks denote glycoproteins chosen for further analyses (Fig. 5).
FIG 5
FIG 5
The structurally related lipoproteins Lip and Laz are differentially modified by N. elongata versus N. gonorrhoeae O-OTases. Shown are immunoblots of N. gonorrhoeae strains expressing either the endogenous pglO allele or the N. elongata pglO allele along with ORF-inactivating mutations in lip and/or laz. Samples were probed with either a glycan-recognizing MAb (top panel) or a polyclonal antiserum raised against recombinant Laz purified from E. coli (bottom panel). The latter antibodies react with both Lip and Laz. The strains used are (from left to right) KS127, CH48, CH156, CH155, and CH157. (B) Alignment of Lip and the amino terminus of Laz from N. gonorrhoeae. Conserved residues are highlighted in blue, and serine residues (potential sites of glycan attachment) are highlighted in red. Vertical red lines define AEAAP pentapeptide repeat units (and degenerate forms thereof). The vertical black arrow shows the site of N-terminal proteolytic cleavage of the diacylglyceryl-prolipoprotein.
FIG 6
FIG 6
Glycoproteomic/proteomic analysis supports the alteration of glycosylated substrates independent of changes in protein abundance. (A) A volcano plot of quantified glycopeptides reveals alterations in the abundances of glycopeptides within samples expressing different OTases. Examination of peptides identified for the proteins PilQ (UPI0003907A11 [red]) and PilV (UPI0001AF301D [blue]) reveals glycopeptides of these proteins are only observed within strains expressing the N. gonorrhoeae OTase. Other glycopeptides showing significant differences in the two backgrounds are derived from MtrC (UPI0001AF4B28 [green]) and Ag473 (UPI00004CE5C0 [black]). Further analyses of the nonglycosylated peptides derived from PilQ and PilV reveal similar levels of protein abundances in both backgrounds (panels B and C, respectively).
FIG 7
FIG 7
Chimeric O-OTases reveal domains influencing PilE targeting specificity. (A) Predicted transmembrane topologies of N. meningitidis PglO based on Phobius (69) and visualized using Protter (70). Color-coded stretches indicate conserved amino acid residues shared between N. meningitidis and N. cinerea alleles that were used as fusion sites. (B) Immunoblot of whole-cell lysates of N. gonorrhoeae strains expressing pglO chimeric constructs. (Top panel) Membrane probed with a glycan-specific MAb. (Bottom panel) The same membrane shown in top panel reprobed with the PilE-recognizing polyclonal antiserum. (C) Cartoon illustration of the PglO chimeras color coded so as to delineate fusion sites as shown in panel A. The numbering here corresponds to the lane numbers in panel B. The strains used are (from left to right in panel B) CH91 to -100, CH105, CH106, CH59, CH66, CH47, and CH152.

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