Staphylococcus aureus operates protein-tyrosine phosphorylation through a specific mechanism.

Protein phosphorylation on tyrosine has been originally characterized in animal systems and has been shown to be involved in several fundamental processes including signal transduction, growth control, and malignancy. It has been later demonstrated to occur also in a number of bacteria, and recent data suggest that it may participate in the control of bacterial pathogenicity. In this work, we provide evidence that the gram-positive human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus harbors a protein-tyrosine kinase activity. This activity is borne by a protein, termed Cap5B2, whose phosphorylating capacity is expressed only in the presence of a stimulatory protein, either Cap5A1 or Cap5A2, that enhances its affinity for the phosphoryl donor ATP. In fact, the last 27/29 amino acids of the C-terminal domain of either polypeptide are sufficient for stimulating Cap5B2 activity. The stimulation of Cap5B2 by Cap5A1 involves essentially three amino acid residues in a helix of Cap5A1 (Asp202, Glu203, and Asp205) and three residues in a helix (helix 7) of Cap5B2 (Glu190, Lys192, and Lys193), thus suggesting helix-helix interaction between these two proteins. This type of helix-helix interaction resembles the interaction required for the activation of MinD ATPase by MinE protein in the process of septum-site determination, MinD sharing sequence similarity with Cap5B2. Such activation mechanism is described here in a gram-positive bacterial tyrosine kinase, and differs from the activation mechanism previously proposed for gram-negative bacteria. Therefore, it appears that S. aureus, and possibly other gram-positive bacteria, utilizes a specific molecular mechanism for triggering protein-tyrosine kinase activity.