Pyrophosphate-producing protein dephosphorylation by HPr kinase/phosphorylase: A relic of early life?

In most Gram-positive bacteria, serine-46-phosphorylated HPr (P-Ser-HPr) controls the expression of numerous catabolic genes (≈10% of their genome) by acting as catabolite corepressor. HPr kinase/phosphorylase (HprK/P), the bifunctional sensor enzyme for catabolite repression, phosphorylates HPr, a phosphocarrier protein of the sugar-transporting phosphoenolpyruvate/glycose phosphotransferase system, in the presence of ATP and fructose-1,6-bisphosphate but dephosphorylates P-Ser-HPr when phosphate prevails over ATP and fructose-1,6-bisphosphate. We demonstrate here that P-Ser-HPr dephosphorylation leads to the formation of HPr and pyrophosphate. HprK/P, which binds phosphate at the same site as the β phosphate of ATP, probably uses the inorganic phosphate to carry out a nucleophilic attack on the phosphoryl bond in P-Ser-HPr. HprK/P is the first enzyme known to catalyze P-protein dephosphorylation via this phospho–phosphorolysis mechanism. This reaction is reversible, and at elevated pyrophosphate concentrations, HprK/P can use pyrophosphate to phosphorylate HPr. Growth of Bacillus subtilis on glucose increased intracellular pyrophosphate to concentrations (≈6 mM), which in in vitro tests allowed efficient pyrophosphate-dependent HPr phosphorylation. To effectively dephosphorylate P-Ser-HPr when glucose is exhausted, the pyrophosphate concentration in the cells is lowered to 1 mM. In B. subtilis, this might be achieved by YvoE. This protein exhibits pyrophosphatase activity, and its gene is organized in an operon with hprK.