Structural comparison of the histidine-containing phosphocarrier protein HPr

The phosphocarrier protein HPr is a central component of the bacterial phosphoenolpyruvate:sugar phosphotransferase system (PTS) that is responsible for carbohydrate uptake in many bacterial species. A number of three-dimensional structures of HPrs from both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria have been determined; the overall folding topology of HPr is an open-faced beta-sandwich composed of three alpha-helices and a beta-sheet. A detailed structural comparison of these HPrs has been carried out. Besides the overall main chain folding, many detailed structural features are well conserved in all HPr structures. The three x-ray structures of HPrs from Escherichia coli, Streptococcus faecalis, and Bacillus subtilis show considerable overall similarity with respect to the positions of the C alpha atoms. A significant structural difference between HPrs from Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria is found in the region of Gly54, owing to the steric effects of Tyr37 in HPrs from the Gram-positive species. The region around Gly54 is involved in the binding of HPr to other PTS proteins and the differences in this region may be responsible for some of the poor functional complementation between HPrs from Gram-positive and Gram-negative species. The active center region, residues 12-18, appears to have significant differences in the comparisons between the overall structures. These differences support the proposal that phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of the active site His15 is accompanied by conformational changes. However, a local structural comparison of residues 12-18 from the x-ray structures of HPrs from E. coli and B. subtilis, and the two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance structure of B. subtilis HPr suggests that there is a conserved active center involving residues His15, Arg 17, and Pro18, which shows little conformational change during the phosphorylation cycle. The results of other experimental approaches, including site-directed mutagenesis and NMR spectroscopy, are in some cases difficult to rationalize with some of the details of the structures, but do appear to favour the conclusion that little conformational change occurs.