Multiple phospholipid N-methyltransferases with distinct substrate specificities are encoded in Bradyrhizobium japonicum.

Phosphatidylcholine (PC) is the major phospholipid in eukaryotic membranes. In contrast, it is found in only a few prokaryotes including members of the family Rhizobiaceae. In these bacteria, PC is required for pathogenic and symbiotic plant-microbe interactions, as shown for Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Bradyrhizobium japonicum. At least two different phospholipid N-methyltransferases (PmtA and PmtX) have been postulated to convert phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) to PC in B. japonicum by three consecutive methylation reactions. However, apart from the known PmtA enzyme, we identified and characterized three additional pmt genes (pmtX1, pmtX3, and pmtX4), which can be functionally expressed in Escherichia coli, showing different substrate specificities. B. japonicum expressed only two of these pmt genes (pmtA and pmtX1) under all conditions tested. PmtA predominantly converts PE to monomethyl PE, whereas PmtX1 carries out both subsequent methylation steps. B. japonicum is the first bacterium known to use two functionally different Pmts. It also expresses a PC synthase, which produces PC via condensation of CDP-diacylglycerol and choline. Our study shows that PC biosynthesis in bacteria can be much more complex than previously anticipated.