The Mycobacterium tuberculosis ClpP1P2 Protease Interacts Asymmetrically with Its ATPase Partners ClpX and ClpC1

Clp chaperone-proteases are cylindrical complexes built from ATP-dependent chaperone rings that stack onto a proteolytic ClpP double-ring core to carry out substrate protein degradation. Interaction of the ClpP particle with the chaperone is mediated by an N-terminal loop and a hydrophobic surface patch on the ClpP ring surface. In contrast to E. coli, Mycobacterium tuberculosis harbors not only one but two ClpP protease subunits, ClpP1 and ClpP2, and a homo-heptameric ring of each assembles to form the ClpP1P2 double-ring core. Consequently, this hetero double-ring presents two different potential binding surfaces for the interaction with the chaperones ClpX and ClpC1. To investigate whether ClpX or ClpC1 might preferentially interact with one or the other double-ring face, we mutated the hydrophobic chaperone-interaction patch on either ClpP1 or ClpP2, generating ClpP1P2 particles that are defective in one of the two binding patches and thereby in their ability to interact with their chaperone partners. Using chaperone-mediated degradation of ssrA-tagged model substrates, we show that both Mycobacterium tuberculosis Clp chaperones require the intact interaction face of ClpP2 to support degradation, resulting in an asymmetric complex where chaperones only bind to the ClpP2 side of the proteolytic core. This sets the Clp proteases of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and probably other Actinobacteria, apart from the well-studied E. coli system, where chaperones bind to both sides of the protease core, and it frees the ClpP1 interaction interface for putative new binding partners.