Mutagenesis Mapping of the Protein-Protein Interaction Underlying FusB-Type Fusidic Acid Resistance

FusB-type proteins represent the predominant mechanism of resistance to fusidic acid in staphylococci and act by binding to and modulating the function of the drug target (elongation factor G [EF-G]). To gain further insight into this antibiotic resistance mechanism, we sought to identify residues important for the interaction of FusB with EF-G and thereby delineate the binding interface within the FusB–EF-G complex. Replacement with alanine of any one of four conserved residues within the C-terminal domain of FusB (F(156), K(184), Y(187), and F(208)) abrogated the ability of the protein to confer resistance to fusidic acid; the purified mutant proteins also lost the ability to bind S. aureus EF-G in vitro. E. coli EF-G, which is not ordinarily able to bind FusB-type proteins, was rendered competent for binding to FusB following deletion of a 3-residue tract ((529)SNP(531)) from domain IV of the protein. This study has identified key regions of both FusB and EF-G that are important for the interaction between the proteins, findings which corroborate our previous in silico prediction for the architecture of the complex formed between the resistance protein and the drug target (G. Cox, G. S. Thompson, H. T. Jenkins, F. Peske, A. Savelsbergh, M. V. Rodnina, W. Wintermeyer, S. W. Homans, T. A. Edwards, and A. J. O'Neill, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 109:2102-2107, 2012).