Toxoplasma Skp1 is Modified by a Cytoplasmic Prolyl 4-Hydroxylase Associated with Oxygen Sensing in the Social Amoeba Dictyostelium

J Biol Chem. 2012 May 30. [Epub ahead of print]

Toxoplasma Skp1 is Modified by a Cytoplasmic Prolyl 4-Hydroxylase Associated with Oxygen Sensing in the Social Amoeba Dictyostelium

Xu Y, Brown KM, Wang ZA, van der Wel H, Teygong C, Zhang D, Blader IJ, West CM.

OUHSC, United States.

In diverse types of organisms, cellular hypoxic responses are mediated by prolyl 4-hydroxylases that use O2 and α-ketoglutarate as substrates to hydroxylate conserved proline residues in target proteins. Whereas in metazoans, these enzymes control the stability of the HIFα family of transcription factor subunits, the Dictyostelium enzyme (DdPhyA) contributes to O2 regulation of development by a divergent mechanism involving hydroxylation and subsequent glycosylation of DdSkp1, an adaptor subunit in E3SCFubiquitin ligases. Sequences related to DdPhyA, DdSkp1, and the glycosyltransferases that cap Skp1-hydroxyproline occur also in the genomes of Toxoplasma and other protists, suggesting that this O2 sensing mechanism may be widespread. Here we show by disruption of the TgphyA locus that this enzyme is required for Skp1 glycosylation in Toxoplasma and that disrupted parasites grow slowly at physiological O2 levels. Conservation of cellular function was tested by expression of TgPhyA in DdphyA-null cells. Simple gene replacement did not rescue Skp1 glycosylation, whereas overexpression not only corrected Skp1 modification but also restored the O2 requirement to a level comparable to that of overexpressed DdPhyA. Bacterially expressed TgPhyA protein can prolyl hydroxylate both Toxoplasma and Dictyostelium Skp1s. Kinetic analyses showed that TgPhyA has similar properties to DdPhyA, including a superimposable dependence on the concentration of its co-substrate α-ketoglutarate. Remarkably, however, TgPhyA had a significantly higher apparent affinity for O2. The findings suggest that Skp1 hydroxylation by PhyA is a conserved process among protists and that this biochemical pathway may indirectly sense O2 by detecting the levels of O2-regulated metabolites such as α-ketoglutarate.

PMID: 22648409 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]