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Efficient adaptation to environmental changes is pivotal for all bacterial cells. Almost all bacterial species depend on the conserved stringent response system to prompt timely transcriptional and metabolic responses according to stress conditions and nutrient depletion. The stringent response relies on the stress-dependent synthesis of the second messenger nucleotides and alarmones (p)ppGpp, which pleiotropically target and reprogram processes that consume cellular resources, such as ribosome biogenesis. Here we show that (p)ppGpp acts on the ribosome biogenesis GTPase A (RbgA) of Gram-positive bacteria. Using X-ray crystallography, hydrogen-deuterium exchange MS (HDX-MS) and kinetic analysis, we demonstrate that the alarmones (p)ppGpp bind to RbgA in a manner similar to that of binding by GDP and GTP and thereby act as competitive inhibitors. Our structural analysis of Staphylococcus aureus RbgA bound to ppGpp and pppGpp at 1.8 and 1.65 Å resolution, respectively, suggested that the alarmones (p)ppGpp prevent the active GTPase conformation of RbgA by sterically blocking the association of its G2 motif via their 3-pyrophosphate moieties. Taken together, our structural and biochemical characterization of RbgA in the context of the alarmone-mediated stringent response reveals how (p)ppGpp affects the function of RbgA and reprograms this GTPase to arrest the ribosomal large subunit.

Many microorganisms possess the capacity for producing multiple antibiotic secondary metabolites. In a few notable cases, combinations of secondary metabolites produced by the same organism are used in important combination therapies for treatment of drug-resistant bacterial infections. However, examples of conjoined roles of bioactive metabolites produced by the same organism remain uncommon. During our genetic functional analysis of oxidase-encoding genes in the everninomicin producer Micromonospora carbonacea var. aurantiaca, we discovered previously uncharacterized antibiotics everninomicin N and O, comprised of an everninomicin fragment conjugated to the macrolide rosamicin via a rare nitrone moiety. These metabolites were determined to be hydrolysis products of everninomicin P, a nitrone-linked conjugate likely the result of nonenzymatic condensation of the rosamicin aldehyde and the octasaccharide everninomicin F, possessing a hydroxylamino sugar moiety. Rosamicin binds the erythromycin macrolide binding site approximately 60 Å from the orthosomycin binding site of everninomicins. However, while individual ribosomal binding sites for each functional half of everninomicin P are too distant for bidentate binding, ligand displacement studies demonstrated that everninomicin P competes with rosamicin for ribosomal binding. Chemical protection studies and structural analysis of everninomicin P revealed that everninomicin P occupies both the macrolide- and orthosomycin-binding sites on the 70S ribosome. Moreover, resistance mutations within each binding site were overcome by the inhibition of the opposite functional antibiotic moiety binding site. These data together demonstrate a strategy for coupling orthogonal antibiotic pharmacophores, a surprising tolerance for substantial covalent modification of each antibiotic, and a potential beneficial strategy to combat antibiotic resistance.

Significance The increase in multidrug-resistant bacteria highlights the urgent need for compounds with novel target sites that can be developed as antibiotics. The argyrins represent a family of naturally produced octapeptides that display promising activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa by inhibiting protein synthesis. Our structural and kinetic analyses reveal that argyrins inhibit protein synthesis by interacting with, and trapping, the translation elongation factor G (EF-G) on the ribosome, analogous to that reported previously for the unrelated antibiotic fusidic acid. However, the binding site of argyrin on EF-G is distinct from that of fusidic acid, indicating that intramolecular movements at the domain III/V interface of EF-G are also essential for facilitating late events in the translocation mechanism.

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