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Residue-Specific Exchange of Proline by Proline Analogs in Fluorescent Proteins: How "Molecular Surgery" of the Backbone Affects Folding and Stability
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Translation stalling proline motifs are enriched in slow-growing, thermophilic, and multicellular bacteria

Tess E Brewer1,2, Andreas Wagner3,4,5,6

  • 1Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. tess@tess-brewer.com.

The ISME Journal
|November 26, 2021
PubMed

Insights

Fast-growing bacteria have fewer proline-rich motifs that can slow translation. Slow-growing, thermophilic, or multicellular bacteria may use these motifs for other functions, like protein stability or signaling.

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Molecular Biology
  • Genomics

Background:

  • Bacterial growth rate is influenced by translation speed.
  • Proline-rich motifs in messenger RNA (mRNA) can stall ribosomes, reducing protein synthesis efficiency.
  • This stalling is particularly detrimental for rapidly dividing bacteria.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the prevalence of di-prolyl motifs (XXPPX) across diverse bacterial species.
  • To determine if the frequency of these motifs correlates with bacterial growth rates.
  • To explore potential alternative functions of di-prolyl motifs beyond translational efficiency.

Main Methods:

  • Conducted a large-scale genomic survey of di-prolyl motifs in over 3000 bacterial genomes from 35 phyla.
  • Correlated motif abundance with known bacterial growth rates.
  • Analyzed motif distribution in specific protein families, such as serine-threonine kinases, in relation to lifestyle.

Main Results:

  • Fast-growing bacteria exhibit significantly fewer di-prolyl motifs compared to slow-growing species, especially in highly expressed proteins.
  • Thermophilic bacteria and species with complex multicellular lifecycles show a higher prevalence of di-prolyl motifs.
  • In Myxococcota, di-prolyl motifs are frequently found at potential phosphorylation sites in serine-threonine kinases, suggesting a role in cell signaling.

Conclusions:

  • Selection against translational speed reduction may be relaxed in slow-growing or thermophilic bacteria, allowing di-prolyl motifs to evolve new functions.
  • Di-prolyl motifs may play roles in proteome stability in thermophiles and in cell signaling pathways regulating multicellularity.

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