YihE is a novel binding partner of Rho and regulates Rho-dependent transcription termination in the Cpx stress response
Biying Wang,
Hairun Pei,
Zhifang Lu,
Yingying Xu,
Shengnan Han,
Zongchao Jia,
Jimin Zheng
Affiliations
Biying Wang
College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, P. R. China
Hairun Pei
College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, P. R. China; Beijing Advanced Innovation Centre for Food Nutrition and Human Health, Beijing Technology & Business University (BTBU), Beijing 100048, P. R. China
Zhifang Lu
College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, P. R. China
Yingying Xu
College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, P. R. China; CAS Key Laboratory of Genomic and Precision Medicine, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, P. R. China
Shengnan Han
College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, P. R. China
Zongchao Jia
Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen’s University, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada; Corresponding author
Jimin Zheng
College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, P. R. China; Corresponding author
Summary: The conjugative pilus expression (Cpx) stress response system can sense cell envelope stressors, such as misfolded proteins, and upregulate proteases to modify or degrade damaged proteins. YihE is a protein kinase implicated in the Cpx system, and Rho is a transcription termination factor in prokaryotes, but no functional connection between YihE and Rho has been reported. Here, we found that YihE can interact with Rho to form a binary complex with a stoichiometric ratio of 6:1 (Rho:YihE). A low resolution of Rho crystal structure in the presence of YihE was determined. YihE overexpression helped lessen the aberrant effects caused by Rho overexpression, including long cell morphology and other Rho-mediated phenotypes. Overall, YihE is a Rho binding partner that acts as a Rho antagonist in the Cpx stress. YihE binding to Rho would compete RNA from binding to Rho, thereby helping bacteria cope with stress through the regulation of Rho-dependent transcription termination.
