ClpX interactions with ClpP, SspB, protein substrate and nucleotide

Abstract

ClpXP and related ATP-dependent proteases are implements of cytosolic protein destruction. They couple chemical energy, derived from ATP hydrolysis, to the selection, unfolding, and degradation of protein substrates with the appropriate degradation signals. The ClpX component of ClpXP is a hexameric enzyme that recognizes protein substrates and unfolds them in an ATP-dependent reaction. Following unfolding, ClpX translocates the unfolded substrate into the ClpP peptidase for degradation. The best characterized degradation signal is the ssrA-degradation tag, which contains a binding site for ClpX and an adjacent binding site for the SspB adaptor protein. I show that the close proximity of these binding elements causes SspB binding to mask signals needed for ssrA-tag recognition by ClpX. The SspB dimer overcomes this signal masking by tethering itself and bound substrate to ClpX, via docking sites located in the dimeric N-terminal domain of ClpX. Because this N-domain dimer binds only a single SspB subunit, the ClpX hexamer can accommodate just one SspB dimer per hexamer. Other adaptor proteins that use these same tethering sites must compete with SspB for access to ClpXP. Substrates bearing ssrA tags with increased spacing between the SspB and ClpX binding elements are degraded more efficiently at low concentrations by ClpXP.

(cont.) This mechanism in which the adaptor first obstructs and then stimulates substrate recognition may have evolved to permit an additional level of regulation of substrate choice. SspB binding to ssrA-tagged substrate is a highly dynamic process, allowing rapid transfer of substrates from SspB to ClpX. Although the ClpX hexamer is composed of six identical polypeptides, individual subunits assume at least three distinct conformations. Using a hexamer that was engineered to prevent nucleotide hydrolysis, I show that some nucleotide-binding sites in ClpX release ATP rapidly, others release ATP slowly, and at least two sites remain nucleotide free. Occupancy of both the slow sites by ATP and the fast sites by either ATP or ADP is required to bind the degradation tags of protein substrates. The ability of ClpX to retain binding of substrate with ATP or ADP in the fast sites suggests that nucleotide hydrolysis in the fast sites, but not in the slow sites, will allow repeated unfolding attempts without substrate release over multiple ATPase cycles. My results rule out ATPase models including ClpX6eATP6 or ADP6 and also suggest that the enzyme hydrolyzes only a fraction of bound ATP in a single turnover event. Short peptide motifs of ClpX, known as IGF loops, interact with ClpP and change conformation as a response to nucleotide binding by ClpX.

(cont.) As ClpX varies its nucleotide content during the ATP hydrolysis cycle, it also varies its affinity for ClpP. Processing of substrates is coupled to the ATP-hydrolysis cycle of ClpX and appears to modulate ClpX's affinity for ClpP by changing how long each ClpX subunit spends in each nucleotide state.