Abstract
Cation diffusion facilitators (CDFs) are a large family of divalent metal transporters that collectively possess broad metal specificity and contribute to intracellular metal homeostasis and virulence in bacterial pathogens. Streptococcus pneumoniae expresses two homologous CDF efflux transporters, MntE and CzcD. Cells lacking mntE or czcD are sensitive to manganese (Mn) or zinc (Zn) toxicity, respectively, and specifically accumulate Mn or Zn, respectively, thus suggesting that MntE selectively transports Mn, while CzcD transports Zn. Here, we probe the origin of this metal specificity using a phenotypic growth analysis of pneumococcal variants. Structural homology to Escherichia coli YiiP predicts that both MntE and CzcD are dimeric and each protomer harbors four pairs of conserved metal-binding sites, termed the A site, the B site, and the C1/C2 binuclear site. We find that single amino acid mutations within both the transmembrane domain A site and the B site in both CDFs result in a cellular metal sensitivity similar to that of the corresponding null mutants. However, multiple mutations in the predicted cytoplasmic C1/C2 cluster of MntE have no impact on cellular Mn resistance, in contrast to the analogous substitutions in CzcD, which do have on impact on cellular Zn resistance. Deletion of the MntE-specific C-terminal tail, present only in Mn-specific bacterial CDFs, resulted in only a modest growth phenotype. Further analysis of MntE-CzcD functional chimeric transporters showed that Asn and Asp in the ND-DD A-site motif of MntE and the most N-terminal His in the HD-HD site A of CzcD (the specified amino acids are underlined) play key roles in transporter metal selectivity. Importance: Cation diffusion facilitator (CDF) proteins are divalent metal ion transporters that are conserved in organisms ranging from bacteria to humans and that play important roles in cellular physiology, from metal homeostasis and resistance to type I diabetes in vertebrates. The respiratory pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae expresses two metal CDF transporters, CzcD and MntE. How CDFs achieve metal selectivity is unclear. We show here that CzcD and MntE are true paralogs, as CzcD transports zinc, while MntE selectively transports manganese. Through the use of an extensive collection of pneumococcal variants, we show that a primary determinant for metal selectivity is the A site within the transmembrane domain. This extends our understanding of how CDFs discriminate among transition metals.