Classical ligands bind to the extracellular surface of their cognate receptors and activate signaling pathways without crossing the plasma membrane barrier. We selectively targeted the intracellular receptor–G protein interface by using cell-penetrating membrane-tethered peptides. Attachment of a palmitate group to peptides derived from the third intracellular loop of protease-activated receptors-1 and -2 and melanocortin-4 receptors yields agonists and/or antagonists of receptor–G protein signaling. These lipidated peptides—which we have termed pepducins—require the presence of their cognate receptor for activity and are highly selective for receptor type. Mutational analysis of both intact receptor and pepducins demonstrates that the cell-penetrating agonists do not activate G proteins by the same mechanism as the intact receptor third intracellular loop but instead require the C-tail of the receptor. Construction of such peptide–lipid conjugates constitutes a new molecular strategy for the development of therapeutics targeted to the receptor–effector interface.

Alginate is a polysaccharide produced by certain seaweeds and bacteria that consists of mannuronic acid and guluronic acid residues. Seaweed alginate is used in food and industrial chemical processes, while the biosynthesis of bacterial alginate is associated with pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Alginate lyases cleave this polysaccharide into short oligo-uronates and thus have the potential to be utilized for both industrial and medicinal applications. An alginate lyase gene, algMsp, from Microbulbifer sp. 6532A, was synthesized as an E.coli codon-optimized clone. The resulting 37 kDa recombinant protein, AlgMsp, was expressed, purified and characterized. The alginate lyase displayed highest activity at pH 8 and 0.2 M NaCl. Activity of the alginate lyase was greatest at 50°C; however the enzyme was not stable over time when incubated at 50°C. The alginate lyase was still highly active at 25°C and displayed little or no loss of activity after 24 hours at 25°C. The activity of AlgMsp was not dependent on the presence of divalent cations. Comparing activity of the lyase against polymannuronic acid and polyguluronic acid substrates showed a higher turnover rate for polymannuronic acid. However, AlgMSP exhibited greater catalytic efficiency with the polyguluronic acid substrate. Prolonged AlgMsp-mediated degradation of alginate produced dimer, trimer, tetramer, and pentamer oligo-uronates.

The protease-activated receptors are tethered ligand G protein-coupled receptors that are activated by proteolytic cleavage of the extracellular domain of the receptor. The archetypic protease-activated receptor PAR1 strongly activates G_q signaling pathways, but very little is known regarding the mechanism of signal transference between receptor and internally located G protein. The recent x-ray structure of rhodopsin revealed the presence of a highly conserved amphipathic 8th helix that is likely to be physically interposed between receptor and G protein. We found that the analogous 8th helix region of PAR1 was critical for activation of G_q-dependent signaling. Engineering an 8th helix α-aneurysm with a downwards-directed alanine residue markedly interfered with signal transference to G_q. The 8th helix-anchoring cysteine palmitoylation sites were important for the affinity of ligand-dependent G protein coupling but did not affect the maximal signal. A network of H-bond and ionic interactions was found to connect the N-terminal portion of the 8th helix to the nearby NPXXY motif on transmembrane helix 7 and also to the adjacent intracellular loop-1. Disruption of these pairwise interactions caused additive defects in coupling to G protein, indicating that the transmembrane 7–8th helix-i1 loop may move in a coordinated manner to transfer the signal from PAR1 to G protein. This “7-8-1” interaction network was found to be prevalent in G protein-coupled receptors involved in endothelial signaling and angiogenesis.

Uptake of inositol by Saccharomyces cerevisiae is mediated by a specific inositol permease encoded by the ITR1 gene. Removal of inositol from the growth medium results in an increase in ITR1 mRNA abundance. The increase in ITR1 mRNA is accompanied by an increase in de novo synthesis of the Itr1 permease leading to an increased capacity for uptake. When inositol is added to the growth medium inactivation of uptake activity occurs, and both transcription of ITR1 and uptake activity are repressed to a basal level of function. The transcriptional regulation of ITR1 depends on the INO2, INO4, and OPI1 genes. In addition, repression is also achieved by regulation of ITR1 expression at the post-translational level. In this study, we show that there is a change in the stability of the Itr1 permease after the addition of inositol to the growth medium. Immunoblot analysis using a monoclonal antibody against an epitope attached to the Itr1 permease showed that the addition of inositol causes a dramatic increase in the rate of degradation of the permease. After the repressed (basal) level is achieved, turnover continues to be rapid. The increased rate of degradation was also observed in strains with mutations that block conjugation to ubiquitin. Degradation was not observed in strains defective in the END3/END4 endocytic pathway or in the production of vacuolar proteases (PEP4). Thus, inactivation of the Itr1 permease is accompanied by endocytic internalization followed by degradation in the vacuole. Inactivation may be a separate process that precedes and signals endocytic degradation. Since the end3/end4 mutations did not affect uptake activity under derepressed conditions, endocytosis is not required for normal inositol uptake.

Due to the continuing global concerns involving antibiotic resistance, there is a need for scientific forums to assess advancements in the development of antimicrobials and their alternatives that might reduce development and spread of antibiotic resistance among bacterial pathogens. The objectives of the 2nd International Symposium on Alternatives to Antibiotics were to highlight promising research results and novel technologies that can provide alternatives to antibiotics for use in animal health and production, assess challenges associated with their authorization and commercialization for use, and provide actionable strategies to support their development. The session on microbial-derived products was directed at presenting novel technologies that included exploiting CRISPR-Cas nucleases to produce sequence-specific antimicrobials, probiotics development via fecal microbiome transplants among monogastric production animals such as chickens and mining microbial sources such as bacteria or yeast to identify new antimicrobial compounds. Other research has included continuing development of antimicrobial peptides such as newly discovered bacteriocins as alternatives to antibiotics, use of bacteriophages accompanied by development of unique lytic proteins with specific cell-wall binding domains and novel approaches such as microbial-ecology guided discovery of anti-biofilm compounds discovered in marine environments. The symposium was held at the Headquarters of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) in Paris, France during 12–15 December 2016.

Increases in the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus have elicited efforts to develop novel antimicrobials to treat these drug-resistant pathogens. One potential treatment repurposes the lytic enzymes produced by bacteriophages as antimicrobials. The phage Twort endolysin (PlyTW) harbors three domains, a cysteine, histidine-dependent amidohydrolases/peptidase domain (CHAP), an amidase-2 domain and a SH3b-5 cell wall binding domain (CBD). Our results indicate that the CHAP domain alone is necessary and sufficient for lysis of live S. aureus, while the amidase-2 domain is insufficient for cell lysis when provided alone. Loss of the CBD results in ∼10X reduction of enzymatic activity in both turbidity reduction and plate lysis assays compared to the full length protein. Deletion of the amidase-2 domain resulted in a protein (PlyTW Δ172-373) with lytic activity that exceeded the activity of the full length construct in both the turbidity reduction and plate lysis assays. Addition of Ca²⁺ enhanced the turbidity reduction activity of both the full length protein and truncation constructs harboring the CHAP domain. Chelation by addition of EDTA or the addition of zinc inhibited the activity of all PlyTW constructs.