ClpB and HtpG facilitate de novo protein folding in stressed Escherichia coli cells

DnaK–DnaJ–GrpE and GroEL–GroES are the best‐characterized molecular chaperone systems in the cytoplasm of Escherichia coli. A number of additional proteins, including ClpA, ClpB, HtpG and IbpA/B, act as molecular chaperones in vitro, but their function in cellular protein folding remains unclear. Here, we examine how these chaperones influence the folding of newly synthesized recombinant proteins under heat‐shock conditions. We show that the absence of either ClpB or HtpG at 42°C leads to increased aggregation of preS2‐β‐galactosidase, a fusion protein whose folding depends on DnaK–DnaJ–GrpE, but not GroEL–GroES. However, only the ΔclpB mutation is deleterious to the folding of homodimeric Rubisco and cMBP, two proteins requiring the GroEL–GroES chaperonins to reach a proper conformation. Null mutations in clpA or the ibpAB operon do not affect the folding of these model substrates. Overexpression of ClpB, HtpG, IbpA/B or ClpA does not suppress inclusion body formation by the aggregation‐prone protein preS2‐S′‐β‐galactosidase in wild‐type cells or alleviate recombinant protein misfolding in dnaJ259, grpE280 or groES30 mutants. By contrast, higher levels of DnaK–DnaJ, but not GroEL–GroES, restore efficient folding in ΔclpB cells. These results indicate that ClpB, and to a lesser extent HtpG, participate in de novo protein folding in mildly stressed E. coli cells, presumably by expanding the ability of the DnaK–DnaJ–GrpE team to interact with newly synthesized polypeptides.