Reviews of Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology 251 sweiveR fo 251 ygoloisyhP yrtsimehcoiB dna ygolocamrahP Special Issue on Emerging Bacterial Toxins Edited by K. Aktories and I. Just Editors S.G. Amara, Pittsburgh • E. Bamberg, Frankfurt R. Jahn, G6ttingen • W.J. Lederer, Baltimore A. Miyajima, Tokyo • H. Murer, Ztirich S. Offermanns, Heidelberg • G. Schultz, Berlin M. Schweiger, Berlin With 57 Figures, 27 in color regnirpS Prof. Dr. Dr. Klaus Aktories Albert-Ludwigs-Universit~it Freiburg Institut ftir Experimentelle und Klinische Pharmakologie und Toxikologie Albertstr. 25 79104 Freiburg Germany E-mail: Klaus.Aktories @pharmakol.uni-freiburg.de Prof. Dr. Ingo Just Medizinische Hochschule Hannover Institut fiir Toxikologie Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1 30625 Hannover Germany E-mail: just.ingo @ mh-hannover.de Library of Congress-Catalog-Card Number 74-3674 ISSN 0303-4240 ISBN 3-540-23131-5 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York This work is subject to copyright. 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Product liability: The publishers cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information about dosage and application contained in this book. In every individual case the user must check such information by consulting the relevant literature. Editor: Dr. Thomas Mager, Heidelberg Desk editor: Anne Clauss, Heidelberg Production editor: Andreas G6sling, Heidelberg Cover design: design & production GmbH, Heidelberg Typesetting: Stiirtz GmbH, Wtirzburg Printed on acid-free paper - 14/3150 ag 5 4 3 2 0 1 RevPhysiolBiochemPharmacol(2004)152:1–22 DOI10.1007/s10254-004-0034-4 K.Aktories·C.Wilde·M.Vogelsgesang Rho-modifying C3-like ADP-ribosyltransferases Publishedonline:15September2004 (cid:1)Springer-Verlag2004 Abstract C3-like exoenzymes comprise a family of seven bacterial ADP-ribosyltrans- ferases, which selectively modify RhoA, B, and C at asparagine-41. Crystal structures of C3exoenzymesareavailable,allowingnovelinsightsintothestructure-functionrelation- ships of these exoenzymes. Because ADP-ribosylation specifically inhibits the biological functionsofthelow-molecularmassGTPases,C3exoenzymesareestablishedpharmaco- logicaltoolstostudythecellularfunctionsofRhoGTPases.Recentstudies,however,in- dicate that the functional consequences of C3-induced ADP-ribosylation are more com- plex than previously suggested. In the present review the basic properties of C3 exoen- zymesarebrieflysummarizedandnewfindingsarereviewed. Introduction Many bacterial ADP-ribosyltransferases are potent bacterial protein toxins and important virulence factors. After cellular uptake caused by highly efficient cell entry mechanisms, they modify eukaryotic target proteins with great specificity and often grossly affect bio- logicalfunctionsoftheirtargets.Thesepropertiesofthetoxinsarethereasonfortheiruse ascellbiologicalandpharmacologicaltools(Aktories2000).Particularlysuccessfulphar- macological tools are ADP-ribosyltransferases of the C3 family, which modify Rho GT- Pases. In the 1990s, C3 exoenzymes turned out to be very valuable experimental keys to understandthewidearrayofdiverseregulatoryfunctionsofRhoGTPases.Inhundredsof papers, C3 exoenzymes have been widely employed as cell biological tools to elucidate thecellularfunctionsofRhoGTPases.ThisholdstruedespitethefactthattheseADP-ri- bosyltransferases are rather poorly taken up by eukaryotic targets cells and their roles as virulence factors are still not well defined. Here, we will briefly review the basic proper- ties of these ADP-ribosyltransferases and will focus on novel findings on the functional consequencesofC3-inducedADP-ribosylationanddiscussrecent reportsonthestructure andfunctionoftheenzymes. ) K.Aktories( )·C.Wilde·M.Vogelsgesang InstituteofExperimentalandClinicalPharmacologyandToxicology, Albert-LudwigsUniversityFreiburg,Otto-Krayer-Haus,Albertstr.25,Freiburg,Germany 2 RevPhysiolBiochemPharmacol(2004)152:1–22 Recent reviews about C3 exoenzymes focused on different aspects of the transferases (Aktoriesetal.1992;Aktories1997a,b;Boquetetal.1998;Justetal.2001;Narumiyaand Morii1993;WildeandAktories2001).Theexcitingfollow-upoftheinitialmajordiscov- eries in the field of Rho GTPases, including the role of C3 in this process, was recently vividlycommunicatedbyRidleyandHall(RidleyandHall2004). SourcesofC3-likeADP-ribosyltransferases C3exoenzymesareproducedbydifferenttypesofGram-positiveobligateandfacultative pathogens. So far, seven C3-like isoforms have been described, which are produced by Clostridiumbotulinum,Clostridiumlimosum,BacilluscereusandStaphylococcusaureus. C3 was first identified as a product of Clostridium botulinum types C and D (Aktories et al. 1987, 1988; Rubin et al. 1988). Later it was found that two isoforms are produced by theseClostridia,whichareabout65%identicalintheiraminoacidsequences(Nemotoet al.1991).TheyhavebeentermedC3bot1andC3bot2.AtleastthegeneforC3bot1islo- catedonthesamephage,whichalsoencodesC.botulinumneurotoxinstypeC(Popoffet al. 1990). C3lim is produced by Clostridium limosum (Just et al. 1992)and isabout 63% identical with C3bot1. Bacillus cereus produces C3cer (Just et al. 1995a), which is about 30% identical with C3bot1. Three C3 isoforms have been described, which are produced byStaphylococcusaureus(C3stau1,2,and3).Theseexoenzymesareabout35%identical with C3bot1 and 66%–77% identical between each other. The C3stau exoenzymes are also termed EDINs (Epidermal differentiation inhibitor) (Inoue et al. 1991; Wilde et al. 2001b;Yamaguchietal.2001)(Fig.1a,b). Structure–functionanalysisofC3-likeexoenzymes C3-like ADP-ribosyltransferases are enzymes of about 25 kDa, which all share the same activityinthesensethattheymono-ADP-ribosylateRhoA,B,andCatthesamesiteatas- paragine41(Aktoriesetal.1989;Braunetal.1989;Chardinetal.1989;Justetal.1992, 1995a;Quilliametal.1989;Sekineetal.1989;Sugaietal.1992;Wildeetal.2001b).The bacterialexoenzymespossessnoreceptor-bindingortranslocationdomainand,consistex- clusively of the catalytic domain, which possess ADP-ribosyltransferase and like many other ADP-ribosyltransferases also NAD glycohydrolase activity (Fig. 1a). Most impor- tant for understanding of the structure-function-relationship of C3-like transferases were theanalysisofthecrystalstructuresofC3boteitherboundorunboundtoNAD(Hanetal. 2001; M(cid:1)n(cid:1)trey et al. 2002). These studies showed that the exoenzymes are very similar instructureandfoldingandsharealmostallfunctionallypivotalresiduesdespitethelimit- ed primary sequence homology (some are not more than ~30% identical in their amino acid sequences). These data also corroborated previous mutational analysis, which let to the identification of many functionally important residues and their possible role in the ADP-ribosylationreaction(B(cid:2)hmeretal.1996;Justetal.1995a;Saitoetal.1995;Wilde etal.2002b). The active site of C3bot (and most likely of other C3-like ADP-ribosyltransferases) consists of a mixed a/b-fold with a b-sandwich core, consisting of a five-stranded mixed b-sheetperpendicularlypackedagainstathree-strandedantiparallelb-sheet.Fourconsec- utivea-helicessurroundthethreestrandedb-sheet.Anadditionala-helixflanksthefive- RevPhysiolBiochemPharmacol(2004)152:1–22 3 Fig.1 StructureofC3transferase.aSchemeoftheprimarysequenceofC3botshowingthecatalyticgluta- mate,residuesoftheADP-ribosylationtoxin-turn-turn(ARTT)loop,whichisinvolvedinproteinsubstrate recognition,andPN-loop,whichisinvolvedinbindingofphosphatesofNAD.TheSTS-motif,whichis conservedwithinthefamilyofADP-ribosyltransferases(C3stauisoformspossessanSTQmotif),andsev- eralarginineresiduesinvolvedininteractionwithNADareshown.bThesequencesofthesevenC3-like ADP-ribosyltransferasesaregiven.ClostridiumbotulinumC3transferasetypeI(C3bot1;Acc.Nr.P15879), ClostridiumbotulinumC3transferasetypeII(C3bot2;Acc.Nr.Q00901),ClostridiumlimosumC3transfer- ase(C3lim;Acc.Nr.Q46134),BacilluscereusC3transferase(C3cer;Acc.Nr.AJ429241.1),Staphylococcus aureus C3 transferase A, B, and C (C3stau1; Acc.Nr P24121; C3stau2; Acc.Nr BAC22946, C3stau3; Acc.Nr;.NP_478345;alsotermedEDINA,B,C). stranded sheet (Han et al. 2001). After binding of NAD, a clasping movement (“Crab- claw”movement)ofthetransferaseoccurswhichinvolvesthestructuralelementsa5,b2, b7 and b8, and a3 to enclose the substrate (Evans et al. 2003; M(cid:1)n(cid:1)trey et al. 2002) (Fig. 2). A novel structural motif, termed “ADP-ribosylating-toxin-turn-motif” (ARTT- motif) wasproposed tobeinvolved intheADP-ribosylation reactionandsuggested tobe typicalforallRho-modifyingC3-liketransferasesandalsoforthestructurallyrelatedac- tin-modifying ADP-ribosyltransferases like Clostridium botulinum C2 toxin (Han and Tainer 2002).In C3bot,thismotifconsistsof residues 167–170(note that the counting is 4 RevPhysiolBiochemPharmacol(2004)152:1–22 RevPhysiolBiochemPharmacol(2004)152:1–22 5 withoutthesignalsequenceof40residues)for“turn1”andresidues171–174for“turn2” (Figs.1a,b,2a).Turn1containsaconservedaromaticresidue(C3botPhe169).Thearomat- icsidechainpointstothesurfaceofthemoleculeandwassuggestedtorecognizethesub- strateRhoAviahydrophobicpatchesaroundtheacceptoraminoacidresidueRhoAsn41. The exchange of this critical residue to alanine or lysine in C3stau2 leads to a decreased bindingofRhoAandabolishestheADP-ribosyltransferaseactivityofthesemutants(Wil- de et al. 2002b). In the second turn, two residues (C3botGln172 and C3botGlu174) play im- portantrolesinenzymeactivity.ThesidechainofC3botGln172formshydrogenbondswith theO2’-hydroxylofthenicotinamideribose(Fig.1b),andisthoughttobeinvolvedinthe positioningoftheternaryC3-NAD-Rhocomplexonturn2.ThesidechainofC3botGlu174 stabilizes the formation of an oxocarbenium transition state that arises during the enzy- matic reaction (Han et al. 2001; M(cid:1)n(cid:1)trey et al. 2002; Oppenheimer 1994) (Fig. 2c). Ex- changeofeitheroftheseglutamineorglutamateresiduestoanyotheraminoacidsresults in inhibition of the asparagine-modifying ADP-ribosyltransferase activity (B(cid:2)hmer et al. 1996;Evansetal.2003;M(cid:1)n(cid:1)treyetal.2002;Saitoetal.1995;Wildeetal.2002b). Recently, it was reported that the ARTT-motif of C3bot undergoes conformational changes uponNAD-binding. While NADisboundtoC3bot,the complete motifisorien- tatedintotheinsideoftheproteinandparticipatesinNADbinding(M(cid:1)n(cid:1)treyetal.2002). This form of NAD-binding was also observed in other ADP-ribosyltransferases (Bell and Eisenberg1996;Choeetal.1992;Hanetal.1999;Lietal.1996).InC3stau2,theresting (NADfree)positionoftheARTTloopissimilartotheNADboundstateinC3bot.C3ex- oenzymesproducedbyS.aureusareuniqueascomparedtotheotherC3transferases,be- causetheloopbeforetheARTTlooppossessesanadditionaltworesidues.Thesetwore- sidues are suggested to be responsible for positioning the ARTT loop of C3stau isoforms inaconformationidenticalnottothatoftheNAD-freeC3bot1structurebuttothatofthe C3bot1-NAD-bound conformation. Therefore, conformational changes subsequent to NADbindingareminorinthisregion(Evansetal.2003). Deduced from the crystal structure of C3bot bound to NAD, a further structural ele- ment, termed phosphate-nicotinamide-loop (PN-loop), was suggested to be involved in NAD-binding (Fig. 1b). It covers residues C3bot 137–146 and is also located between strands b3–b4. At least one critical arginine within this loop is conserved in all C3-like ADP-ribosyltransferases. It was reported that this residue forms hydrogen bonds to the phosphate groups of NAD (Fig. 1b). Consequently, exchange to aspartate in C3bot or C3cerabolishedbothNADglycohydrolaseactivityandADP-ribosyltransferaseactivityof thismutant(M(cid:1)n(cid:1)treyetal.2002;Wildeetal.2003). Enzymeactivityandsubstratespecificity Like typical ADP-ribosyltransferases, C3 exoenzymes split NAD into ADP-ribose and nicotinamide and transfer the ADP-ribose moiety onto Rho protein (Fig. 3). C3 modifies Fig.2 Structure of C3bot. a The crystal structure of C3bot shows the ADP-ribosylation toxin-turn-turn (ARTT) motif. This motif is suggested to be involved in the interaction with the protein substrate, e.g., RhoA(C3wasdesignedbySwiss-PdbViewer3.7(databasecode1G24).Theinsertexhibitstheputative interactionofC3stauwithRhoA.DataarefromHanetal.(Hanetal.2001).bSchemeofthefoldingof C3bot(seetext).cResidues,whichparticipateinthebindingofNADtoC3bot.Notethatthecountingof residuesiswithoutthesignalsequence. 6 RevPhysiolBiochemPharmacol(2004)152:1–22 Fig.3 ADP-Ribosylation ofRhoAby C3. C3 transferasesADP-ribosylate RhoAat positionAsn41.The acceptoraminoacidislocatedinorveryclosetotheso-calledeffectorregion(switchI-region)ofRhoA. RhostructurewasdesignedbyRasmolversion2.7.2(databasecode1FTN). asparagine residue (Asn41) of the target protein (Sekine et al. 1989). This is unique for this family of ADP-ribosyltransferases. Many bacterial ADP-ribosyltransferases modify arginineresidues,includingcholeratoxin,PseudomonasexoenzymeSandT,andtheactin modifying binary ADP-ribosyltransferases like C. botulinum C2 toxin. Cysteine is modi- fiedbypertussistoxin(Aktories2000;Barbierietal.2002). C3-like ADP-ribosyltransferases are characterized by their substrate specificity, be- cause they modify preferentially Rho A, B, and C. Other Rho GTPases are poor sub- strates, including Rac and Cdc42. Recently, it was reported that the transferases C3stau1 andC3stau2(EDINAandEDINB)fromS.aureusADP-ribosylatealsoRhoEandRnd3. RhoE and Rnd3 are isoforms, identical except for a 15-residue N-terminal extension on Rnd3, that are antagonistic to RhoA (Guasch et al. 1998; Foster et al. 1996; Nobes et al. 1998;Rientoetal.2003).TheybindGTPbutlackGTPaseactivity.However,thekinetics ofthemodificationofRhoE/Rnd3ismuchmoreslowerthanthattomodifyRhoA(Wilde etal.2001b). ThetargetsofC3exoenzymesaremolecularswitches RhoA,B,andC,themaintargetsofC3exoenzymes,belongtotheRhosubfamilyoflow molecular mass GTP-binding proteins, which comprises more than twenty related GTP- binding proteins, including RhoA, B, C, Rac1, 2, 3, Cdc42, RhoD, Rnd1, Rnd2 (RhoN), RhoE/Rnd3, RhoF (Rif), RhoG, RhoH (TTF) and TC10, TCL, Chp, and Wrch (Jaffe and Hall 2002; Nagata et al. 1998; Ridley 2000; Wennerberg and Der 2004). Most of them, e.g., the prototypes RhoA, B, C, Rac, and Cdc42 cycle between an activated GTP-bound formandaninactiveGDP-boundform(Fig.4).Theexchangeistightlycontrolledbyreg- ulatingproteins: (a) guaninenucleotide exchangefactors (GEFs;more than60 havebeen identified) which activate Rho by promoting the exchange of GDP to GTP, (b) GTPase-