Crystal structure of the MecA degradation tag

MecA is an adaptor protein that regulates the assembly and activity of the ATP-dependent ClpCP protease in Bacillus subtilis. MecAcontains two domains. Although the amino-terminal domain of MecA recruits substrate proteins such as ComK and ComS, the carboxyl-terminal domain (residues 121-218) has dual roles in the regulation and function of ClpCP protease. MecA-(121-218) facilitates the assembly of ClpCP oligomer, which is required for the protease activity of ClpCP. This domain was identified to be a non-recycling degradation tag that targets heterologous fusion proteins to the ClpCP protease for degradation. To elucidate the mechanism of MecA, we determined the crystal structure of MecA-(121-218) at 2.2Å resolution, which reveals a previously uncharacterized α/β fold. Structure-guided mutagenesis allows identification of surface residues that are essential for the function of MecA. We also solved the structure of a carboxyl-terminal domain of YpbH, a paralogue of MecA in B. subtilis, at 2.4Å resolution. Despite low sequence identity, the two structures share essentially the same fold. The presence of MecA homologues in other bacterial species suggests conservation of a large family of unique degradation tags.