The role of the two-component systems Cpx and Arc in protein alterations upon gentamicin treatment in Escherichia coli

BACKGROUND: The aminoglycoside antibiotic gentamicin was supposed to induce a crosstalk between the Cpx- and the Arc-two-component systems (TCS). Here, we investigated the physical interaction of the respective TCS components and compared the results with their respective gene expression and protein abundance. The findings were interpreted in relation to the global proteome profile upon gentamicin treatment. RESULTS: We observed specific interaction between CpxA and ArcA upon treatment with the aminoglycoside gentamicin using Membrane-Strep-tagged protein interaction experiments (mSPINE). This interaction was neither accompanied by detectable phosphorylation of ArcA nor by activation of the Arc system via CpxA. Furthermore, no changes in absolute amounts of the Cpx- and Arc-TCS could be determined with the sensitive single reaction monitoring (SRM) in presence of gentamicin. Nevertheless, upon applying shotgun mass spectrometry analysis after treatment with gentamicin, we observed a reduction of ArcA ~ P-dependent protein synthesis and a significant Cpx-dependent alteration in the global proteome profile of E. coli. CONCLUSIONS: This study points to the importance of the Cpx-TCS within the complex regulatory network in the E. coli response to aminoglycoside-caused stress. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12866-017-1100-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.