A tight tunable range for Ni(II) sensing and buffering in cells

Foster, A.W.; Pernil, R.; Patterson, C.J.; Scott, A.J.P.; Pålsson, L.-O.; Pal, R.; Cummins, I.; Chivers, P.T.; Pohl, E.; Robinson, N.J.

doi:10.1038/nchembio.2310

A tight tunable range for Ni(II) sensing and buffering in cells

Foster, A.W.; Pernil, R.; Patterson, C.J.; Scott, A.J.P.; Pålsson, L.-O.; Pal, R.; Cummins, I.; Chivers, P.T.; Pohl, E.; Robinson, N.J.

Authors

A.W. Foster

R. Pernil

C.J. Patterson

A.J.P. Scott

Dr Lars- Palsson lars-olof.palsson@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Professor Robert Pal robert.pal@durham.ac.uk
Professor

I. Cummins

Dr Peter Chivers peter.chivers@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Professor Ehmke Pohl ehmke.pohl@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Professor Nigel Robinson nigel.robinson@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

The metal affinities of metal-sensing transcriptional regulators co-vary with cellular metal concentrations over more than 12 orders of magnitude. To understand the cause of this relationship, we determined the structure of the Ni(II) sensor InrS and then created cyanobacteria (Synechocystis PCC 6803) in which transcription of genes encoding a Ni(II) exporter and a Ni(II) importer were controlled by InrS variants with weaker Ni(II) affinities. Variant strains were sensitive to elevated nickel and contained more nickel, but the increase was small compared with the change in Ni(II) affinity. All of the variant sensors retained the allosteric mechanism that inhibits DNA binding following metal binding, but a response to nickel in vivo was observed only when the sensitivity was set to respond in a relatively narrow (less than two orders of magnitude) range of nickel concentrations. Thus, the Ni(II) affinity of InrS is attuned to cellular metal concentrations rather than the converse.

Citation

Foster, A., Pernil, R., Patterson, C., Scott, A., Pålsson, L., Pal, R., …Robinson, N. (2017). A tight tunable range for Ni(II) sensing and buffering in cells. Nature Chemical Biology, 13(4), 409-414. https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.2310

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Dec 1, 2016
Online Publication Date	Feb 6, 2017
Publication Date	Apr 1, 2017
Deposit Date	Dec 2, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Aug 6, 2017
Journal	Nature Chemical Biology
Print ISSN	1552-4450
Electronic ISSN	1552-4469
Publisher	Nature Research
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	13
Issue	4
Pages	409-414
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.2310