HD-[HD-GYP] Phosphodiesterases: Activities and Evolutionary Diversification within the HD-GYP Family

Cyclic dinucleotides are signaling molecules that modulate many processes, including immune response and virulence factor production. Their cellular levels in bacteria are fine-tuned by metal-dependent phosphodiesterases, namely, the EAL and HD-GYP proteins, with HD-GYPs belonging to the larger HD domain superfamily. In this study, we first focus on the catalytic properties and the range of metal ions and substrates of the HD-[HD-GYP] subfamily, consisting of two HD domains. We identified SO3491 as a homologue of VCA0681 and the second example of an HD-[HD-GYP]. Both proteins hydrolyze c-di-GMP and 3′3′c-GAMP and coordinate various metal ions, but only Fe and to a lesser extent Co support hydrolysis. The proteins are active only in the diferrous form and not in the one-electron more oxidized FeIIFeIII state. Although the C-terminal HD-GYP domain is essential for activity, the role of the N-terminal HD domain remains unknown. We show that the N-terminal site is important for protein stability, influences the individual apparent k cat and K M (but not k cat/K M), and cannot bind c-di-GMP, thus precluding its involvement in cyclic dinucleotide sensing. We proceeded to perform phylogenetic analyses to examine the distribution and functional relationships of the HD-[HD-GYP]­s to the rest of the HD-GYPs. The phylogeny provides a correlation map that draws a link between the evolutionary and functional diversification of HD-GYPs, serving as a template for predicting the chemical nature of the metallocofactor, level of activity, and reaction outcome.