Novel two-component system-like elements reveal functional domains associated with restriction-modification systems and paraMORC ATPases in bacteria

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Authors

Bellieny-Rabelo, Daniel
Pretorius, Willem J.S.
Moleleki, Lucy Novungayo

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Abstract

Two-component systems (TCS) are important types of machinery allowing for efficient signal recognition and transmission in bacterial cells. The majority of TCSs utilized by bacteria is composed of a sensor histidine kinase (HK) and a cognate response regulator (RR). In the present study,we report two newly predicted protein domains—both to be included in the next release of the Pfamdatabase: Response_reg_2 (PF19192) andHEF_HK(PF19191)—in bacteriawhich exhibit high structural similarity, respectively, with typical domains of RRs and HKs. Additionally, the genes encoding for the novel predicted domains exhibit a 91.6% linkage observed across 644 genomic regions recovered from 628 different bacterial strains. The remarkable adjacent colocalization between genes carrying Response_reg_2 and HEF_HK in addition to their conserved structural features, which are highly similar to those fromwell-known HKs and RRs, raises the possibility of Response_reg_2 and HEF_HK constituting a new TCS in bacteria. The genomic regions inwhich these predicted two-component systems-like are located additionally exhibit an overrepresented presence of restriction–modification (R–M) systems especially the type II R–M. Among these, there is a conspicuous presence of C-5 cytosinespecific DNAmethylaseswhichmay indicate a functional associationwith the newly discovered domains. The solid presence of R–M systems and the presence of theGHKL family domain HATPase_c_3 across most of the HEF_HK-containing genes are also indicative that these genes are evolutionarily related to the paraMORC family of ATPases.

Description

Keywords

MORC, GHKL ATPases, DNA modification methylases, DNA restriction–modification enzymes, Histidine kinase, Two-component system (TCS), Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)

Sustainable Development Goals

Citation

Bellieny-Rabelo, D., Pretorius, W.J.S. & Moleleki, L.N. 2021, 'Novel two-component system-like elements reveal functional domains associated with restriction-modification systems and paraMORC ATPases in bacteria', Genome Biology and Evolution, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 1-15.