EF-Tu from the enacyloxin producing Frateuria W-315 strain: Structure/activity relationship and antibiotic resistance

In this report, we have demonstrated that the poly(U)-dependent poly(Phe) synthesis activity of elongator factor Tu (EF-Tu) from the enacyloxin producing strain Frateuria sp. W-315 is inhibited by the antibiotic similarly to that of Escherichia coli EF-Tu. The inhibitory effect of enacyloxin observed in a purified system was the same as that obtained with an S30 extract from E. coli or Frateuria sp. W-315, respectively, suggesting that antibiotic resistance of enacyloxin producing Frateuria sp. W-315 is not due neither to EF-Tu nor to other components of the translation machinery but to a still unknown mechanism. The EF-Tu gene, as PCR amplified from Frateuria W-315 genomic DNA and sequenced represented an ORF of 1191 nucleotides corresponding to 396 amino acids. This protein is larger than the product of tufA from E. coli by only two amino acid residues. Alignment of the amino acid sequence of EF-Tu from E. coli with those of Frateuria and Ralstonia solanacearum indicates on average 80% identical amino acid residues and 9.7% conservative replacements between EF-Tu Frateuria and EF-Tu E. coli, on one hand, and 97% identity and 1.7% conservative replacement between EF-Tu Frateuria and EF-Tu Ralstonia solanacearum, on the other hand. These strong primary structure similarities between EF-Tu from different origins are consistent with the fact that this factor is essential for the translation process in all kingdoms of life. Comparison of the effects of antibiotics on EF-Tu Frateuria and EF-Tu E. coli revealed that enacyloxin, kirromycin and pulvomycin exert a stronger stimulation of the GDP dissociation rate on EF-Tu Frateuria, while the effects of the antibiotics on the GDP association rate were comparable for the two EF-Tu species. Different mutants of EF-Tu E. coli were constructed with the help of site directed mutagenesis by changing one or several residues of EF-Tu E. coli by the corresponding residues of EF-Tu Frateuria. The single A45K substitution did not modify the intrinsic GTPase activity of EF-Tu E. coli. In contrast, a 2-3 fold stimulation of the intrinsic GTPase activity was observed with the single A42E, F46Y, Q48E and the double F46Y/Q48E substitution. Finally, up to a 7 fold stimulation was observed with the quadruple substitution (mutant A42E/A45K/F46Y/Q48E.