The membrane-bound CzcCBA protein complex mediates heavy metal resistance in Alcaligenes eutrophus by an active cation efflux mechanism driven by cation-proton antiport. The CzcA protein alone is able to mediate weak resistance to zinc and cobalt and is thus the central antiporter subunit. The two histidine-rich motifs in the CzcB subunit are not essential for zinc resistance; however, deletion of both motifs led to a small but significant loss of resistance to this cation. Translation of the czcC gene encoding the third subunit of the CzcCBA complex starts earlier than predicted, and CzcC is probably a periplasmic protein, as judged by the appearance of two bands after expression of czcC in Escherichia coli under control of the phage T7 promoter. Fusions of CzcC and CzcB with alkaline phosphatase and -galactosidase are in agreement with a periplasmic location of most parts of both proteins. Both CzcC and CzcB are bound to a membrane, probably the outer membrane, by themselves and do not need either CzcA or each other as an anchoring protein. Based on these data, a new working model for the function of the Czc system is discussed.Alcaligenes eutrophus CH34 contains at least seven heavy metal resistance determinants, located either on the bacterial chromosome or on one of the two indigenous plasmids pMOL28 (163 kb) and pMOL30 (238 kb) (9,15,17,19,20). One of them, the czc determinant of plasmid pMOL30, mediates inducible resistance to Co 2ϩ , Zn 2ϩ , and Cd 2ϩ in A. eutrophus CH34 (21). The products of the genes czcA, czcB, and czcC form a membrane-bound protein complex catalyzing an energy-dependent efflux of these three metal cations (25,26). The mechanism of action of CzcCBA is that of a cation-proton antiporter (24).Besides the CzcR and CzcS regulatory proteins (37), the membrane-bound CzcD, possibly a sensor protein, is essential for induction of czc (23). CzcD belongs to the newly coined CDF (cation diffusion facilitator) family (27). The function of the products of additional czc genes located upstream of the czcCBA structural gene region remains unclear (37).In an old working model (22,27), CzcA may function as a cation-proton antiporter and CzcB may function as a cationbinding subunit; both subunits together form the Zn 2ϩ efflux system. The CzcC protein acts as a modifier extending the substrate specificity to Co 2ϩ and Cd 2ϩ . This model is based on computer-assisted predictions of the secondary structure and membrane orientation of the three proteins CzcA, CzcB, and CzcC and on the analysis of deletion mutants (25). In this study, we reinvestigated the function and localization of the three subunits by using more sophisticated approaches, and here we propose a new working model.
MATERIALS AND METHODSBacterial strains, plasmids, and growth conditions. A. eutrophus AE104 (17) is a metal-sensitive, plasmid-free derivative of strain CH34. Escherichia coli K38(pGP1-2) (36) was used for expression of czcCBAD derivatives under control of the phage T7 promoter as described previously (19). The other bacteria...