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A pair of isoleucyl-tRNA synthetases in Bacilli fulfill complementary roles to enhance fitness and provide antibiotic resistance

View ORCID ProfileVladimir Zanki, View ORCID ProfileBartol Bozic, View ORCID ProfileMarko Mocibob, View ORCID ProfileNenad Ban, View ORCID ProfileIta Gruic-Sovulj
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.09.479832
Vladimir Zanki
1Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Horvatovac 102a, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
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Bartol Bozic
1Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Horvatovac 102a, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
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Marko Mocibob
1Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Horvatovac 102a, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
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Nenad Ban
2Department of Biology, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, ETH Zurich, Otto-Stern-Weg 5, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland
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Ita Gruic-Sovulj
1Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Horvatovac 102a, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
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  • For correspondence: gruic@chem.pmf.hr
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Abstract

Isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase (IleRS) is an essential enzyme that covalently couples isoleucine to the corresponding tRNA. Bacterial IleRSs group in two clades, ileS1 and ileS2, the latter bringing resistance to the natural antibiotic mupirocin. Generally, bacteria rely on either ileS1 or ileS2 as a standalone housekeeping gene. However, we have found an exception by noticing that Bacillus species with genomic ileS2 consistently also keep ileS1, which appears mandatory in the genus Bacillus. Taking Bacillus megaterium as a model organism, we showed that BmIleRS1 is constitutively expressed, while BmIleRS2 is stress-induced. Both enzymes share the same level of the aminoacylation accuracy. Yet, BmIleRS1 exhibited a two-fold faster aminoacylation turnover (kcat) than BmIleRS2 and permitted a notably faster cell-free translation. At the same time, BmIleRS2 displayed a 104-fold increase in its Ki for mupirocin, arguing that the aminoacylation turnover in IleRS2 could have been traded-off for antibiotic resistance. As expected, a B. megaterium strain deleted for ileS2 was mupirocin-sensitive. We also succeed in the construction of a mupirocin-resistant strain lacking ileS1, a solution not found among Bacilli in nature. However, B. megaterium ΔileS1 displayed a severe fitness loss and was seriously compromised in biofilm formation. Neither of these phenotypes were rescued by BmIleRS2 expressed from the constitutive promotor of ileS1. Thus, BmIleRS1 safeguards B. megaterium fitness, likely by promoting faster translation than BmIleRS2, whereas the later enzyme is maintained to provide antibiotic resistance when needed. Our data are consistent with an emerging picture in which fast-growing organisms predominantly use IleRS1 for competitive survival.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted February 10, 2022.
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A pair of isoleucyl-tRNA synthetases in Bacilli fulfill complementary roles to enhance fitness and provide antibiotic resistance
Vladimir Zanki, Bartol Bozic, Marko Mocibob, Nenad Ban, Ita Gruic-Sovulj
bioRxiv 2022.02.09.479832; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.09.479832
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A pair of isoleucyl-tRNA synthetases in Bacilli fulfill complementary roles to enhance fitness and provide antibiotic resistance
Vladimir Zanki, Bartol Bozic, Marko Mocibob, Nenad Ban, Ita Gruic-Sovulj
bioRxiv 2022.02.09.479832; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.09.479832

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