Carboxy-terminal phenylalanine is essential for the correct assembly of a bacterial outer membrane protein

Bacterial outer membrane proteins are supposed to span the membrane repeatedly, mostly in the form of amphipathic beta-sheets. The last ten C-terminal amino acid residues of PhoE protein are supposed to form such a membrane-spanning segment. Deletion of this segment completely prevents incorporation into the outer membrane. Comparison of the last ten amino acid residues of other outer membrane proteins from different Gram-negative bacteria revealed the presence of a potential amphipathic beta-sheet with hydrophobic residues at positions 1 (Phe), 3 (preferentially Tyr), 5, 7 and 9 from the C terminus, in the vast majority of these proteins. Since such sequences were not detected at the C termini of periplasmic proteins, it appears to be possible to discriminate between the majority of outer membrane proteins and periplasmic proteins on the basis of sequence data. The highly conserved phenylalanine at the C termini of outer membrane proteins suggests an important function for this amino acid in assembly into the outer membrane. Site-directed mutagenesis was applied to study the role of the C-terminal Phe in PhoE protein assembly. All mutant proteins were correctly incorporated into the outer membrane to some extent, but the efficiency of the process was severely affected. It appears that both the hydrophobicity and the aromatic nature of Phe are of importance.