Identification and Molecular Characterization of YsaL (Ye3555): A Novel Negative Regulator of YsaN ATPase in Type Three Secretion System of Enteropathogenic Bacteria Yersinia enterocolitica

Type Three Secretion (T3S) ATPases are involved in delivery of virulent factors from bacteria to their hosts (through injectisome) in an energy (ATP) dependent manner during pathogenesis. The activities of these ATPases are tightly controlled by their specific regulators. In Yersinia enterocolitica, YsaN was predicted as a putative ATPase of the Ysa-Ysp Type Three Secretion System (T3SS) based on sequence similarity with other T3S ATPases. However detailed study and characterization of YsaN and its regulation remains largely obscure. Here, in this study, we have successfully cloned, over-expressed, purified and characterized the molecular properties of YsaN from Yersinia enterocolitica. YsaN acts as a Mg2+ dependent ATPase and exists in solution as higher order oligomer (dodecamer). The ATPase activity of oligomeric YsaN is several fold higher than the monomeric form. Furthermore, by employing in silico studies we have identified the existence of a negative regulator of YsaN- a hypothetical protein YE3555 (termed ‘YsaL’). To verify the functionality of YsaL, we have evaluated the biochemical and biophysical properties of YsaL. Purified YsaL is dimeric in solution and strongly associates with YsaN to form a stable heterotrimeric YsaL-YsaN complex (stoichiometry- 2∶1). The N terminal 6–20 residues of YsaN are invariably required for stable YsaL-YsaN complex formation. YsaL inhibited the ATPase activity of YsaN with a maximum inhibition at the molar ratio 2∶1 (YsaL: YsaN). In short, our studies provide an insight into the presence of YsaN ATPase in Yersinia enterocolitica and its regulator YsaL. Our studies also correlate the functionality of one of the existing protein interaction networks that possibly is indispensable for the energy dependent process of Ysa-Ysp T3SS in pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica.


Introduction
Type Three Secretion Systems (T3SSs) are commonly used by many gram negative bacteria for the delivery of toxic bacterial proteins into eukaryotic cells [1], [2,] [3], [44]. Functional T3SS comprises of following groups of proteins viz -chaperones, translocators, effectors, apparatus proteins and regulators -each endowed with special functions. The major structural component of T3SS assembly is a hollow needle like structure, commonly known as the 'needle complex' or 'injectisome [3], [44]. This injectisome spans the bacterial inner and outer membrane, protruding outside the cell for delivery of toxins during infection upon contact with host cells [4]. Such a needle structure was first observed in Salmonella [5] and Shigella [6] using Cryo-Electron Microscopy. Apart from these organisms, similar structures have been also visualized in Yersinia enterocolitica [7], Escherichia coli [8] and Pseudomonas aeruginosa [9]. The apparatus proteins are essential for the assembly of these needle complexes and display similarities among different bacterial species [10], [11]. In contrast to the apparatus proteins and chaperones, the translocators, effectors and the regulators are relatively less conserved in different microorganisms employing T3SS [12], [13]. The chaperones protect the translocators and the effectors in the bacterial cytosol and guide them to the injectisome for secretion [12][13][14][15]. These translocators and effectors are then channeled through the conduit of the needle complex into their respective hosts in an energy dependent manner by T3S ATPases [16][17][18].The proton motive force coupled with ATP hydrolysis facilitates such translocation [16,19,20]. Evolved from the b subunit of F 0 F 1 ATP synthases, T3S ATPases share significant sequence homology with other closely related species and flagellar system ATPases with a characteristic feature of Walker A and Walker B motifs [19]. These ATPase are important for virulence and are tightly regulated in the cytosol for proper functionality of T3SS [18,21,[33][34][35][36].
Yersinia enterocolitica is a psychrophilic zoonotic pathogen, which causes acute gastritis leading to symptoms like bloody diarrhea, fever and abdominal pain in young children -commonly known as 'Yersiniosis' [22]. Besides these symptoms, arthritis, glomerulonephritis, uvetis and myocarditis also result from chronic Y. enterocolitica infections [23]. Of different strains of Y. enterocolitica, biovar 1B is highly pathogenic to humans and causes 50% mortality in patients with systemic infection [24]. Infection begins with the ingestion of contaminated food and water. Once inside the gut, the bacteria travel through the M cells into the Payer's patch of the intestine and translocate anti-phagocytotic proteins by contact dependent T3SS to interfere with the signaling components of the host innate immune response [25][26][27]. To attain full virulence, Y. enterocolitica biovar 1B requires two independent T3SSs [28,29] -a pYV plasmid encoded Ysc-Yop T3SS responsible for the systemic phase of infection and a 200 kb genomic encoded Ysa-Ysp T3SS that causes the gastrointestinal phase of infection. Genes encoding the Ysa-Ysp T3SS are mostly located within the plasticity zone, a genomic region responsible for virulence of Y. enterocolitica biovar 1B [30][31][32]. Virulence in Ysc-Yop T3SS is attained by translocation of Yop (Yersinia outer proteins) effectors through injectisome, coupled with YscN mediated ATP hydrolysis [33]. Localized in the peripheral inner membrane, YscN interacts with a number of proteins of the T3SS. Of several interacting partners, YscL interacts with YscN and inhibits ATPase activity of YscN [33]. Apart from Y. enterocolitica, such regulations have been extensively studied in the flagellar system of Salmonella sp (FliH negatively regulating FliI ATPase activity) [34], T3SS of Chlamydia pneumonae (CdsL negatively regulating CdsN ATPase activity) [35], Escherechia coli (EscL negatively regulating EscN ATPase activity) [36] and Xanthomonas campestris (HrcL negatively regulating HrcN ATPase) [18]. Although the exact mechanism still remains unclear, probably such regulators inhibit ATPase activity by arresting oligomerization. Similar to YscN, genomic encoded YsaN is predicted to be a putative energizer of Ysa-Ysp T3SS in Y. enterocolitica biovar 1B [37]. However, to date nothing is known about the regulation of YsaN in Y. enterocolitica.
In this report, we have cloned, over-expressed and enzymatically characterized YsaN as a Mg 2+ dependent oligomeric cooperative ATPase. Further, we have also identified a hypothetical gene YE3555 (we termed 'YsaL') using computational analysis and verified its functionality as a negative regulator of YsaN ATPase activity. The role of terminal residues of YsaN in YsaL-YsaN interaction was also investigated.

Computational Analysis
YsaN (YE3544) was predicted and annotated as a putative T3S ATPase in Yersinia enterocolitica [37]. For identification of the ATPase regulator, YscL (Uniprot ID: A1JUA3), a known Type Three Secretion ATPase regulator, was used as a query to BLAST (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) against the non-redundant database of Yersinia enterocolitica O:8. Individual hits were further analyzed in the Pfam database (http://pfam.sanger.ac.uk/). Multiple sequence analysis was performed using ClustalW program and edited in Jalview 2.7. A phylogenetic tree was constructed with average distance based on percentage identity.
Purification of YsaN-His and untagged-YsaL-YsaN-His complex. Cells containing YsaN-His were thawed on ice and resuspended in sonication buffer (25 mM Tris pH 8.0, 300 mM NaCl, 2% glycerol, 5 mM Imidazole pH 8.0). 2 mM PMSF (Phenyl methyl sulfonyl fluoride) was added to the suspension prior to sonication. The resuspended pellet was then lysed with a 30 sec pulse/30 sec interval cycle for 5-6 times, using a Q-Sonica 125 sonicator. The sonicated samples were centrifuged at 120006 g for 30-45 min to remove insoluble materials. Although a part of overexpressed YsaN-His formed inclusion bodies, a considerable amount of the protein was recovered from the supernatant. For YsaN-His, the supernatant was passed through Ni-NTA resin column pre-equilibrated with the equilibration buffer (25 mM Tris, 300 mM NaCl, 2%glycerol, 10 mM Imidazole). After removing non specific proteins with the wash buffer (25 mM Tris, 300 mM NaCl, 2% glycerol, 37 mM Imidazole), protein was collected using the elution buffer (25 mM Tris, 300 mM NaCl, 2% glycerol, 250 mM Imidazole). Eluates were dialysed against Imidazole removal buffer (25 mM Tris, 300 mM NaCl and 2% glycerol). Similar to YsaN-His, untagged YsaL-YsaN-His complex was purified under reduced salt condition (150 mM NaCl) by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography. The entire purification was performed at 4uC. Protein concentration was estimated by standard Lowry method and samples were subsequently analysed in SDS-PAGE for purity.   -His were thawed on ice and sonicated as described previously. The post sonication pellet was then resuspended in the unfolding buffer (6 M Guanidium-HCl, 25 mM Tris pH 8.0, 1 mM EDTA, 300 mM NaCl) and incubated on ice for 30 min. Equal volume of ice cold refolding buffer (25 mM Tris,300 mM NaCl, 15% glycerol) was added and further diluted ten times. The suspensions were centrifuged at 130006 g for 45 min and the supernatant was dialyzed against Guanidium removal buffer (25 mM Tris, 50 mM NaCl) with three changes to facilitate refolding. All refolded samples were then purified by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography as described earlier and dialysed in Imidazole removal buffer subsequently. Post-sonication supernatant of YsaN-His was also purified under denaturing condition as mentioned earlier and termed YsaN flr -His. Untagged YsaL was highly pure after SEC and did not require further downstream purification (data not shown). For interaction study, refolded YsaN deletion mutants (His tagged) and YsaN flr -His were incubated with refolded untagged YsaL in 1:1 ratio and incubated at 4uC for 1 hr. Next the incubated mixtures were purified by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography column (Ni-NTA pull down assay) similar to untagged YsaL-YsaN-His complex. All samples were purified at 4uC and analyzed in SDS PAGE for purity. Protein concentration was estimated by standard Lowry method.

Chemical Crosslinking Experiments
The stoichiometric composition of recombinant YsaN-His, YsaL-His and untagged YsaL-YsaN-His complex was determined by crosslinking experiments. Experiments were carried out with crosslinkers -Sulfo-EGS [ethylene glycol bis (sulfosuccinimidylsuccinate) or EGSS] (Pierce Biotechnology, Inc.) and gluteraldehyde (Fischer scientific) as per the manufacturer's instructions. Prior to crosslinking, all the proteins (Ni-NTA Eluates of YsaN-His, YsaL-His and size exclusion chromatography eluates of untagged YsaL-YsaN-His) were dialyzed in sodium phosphate buffer (50 mM sodium phosphate buffer pH 8.0, 150 mM NaCl). The crosslinking reaction using YsaN-His (200 mg) was performed in a total reaction volume of 50 ml. The reaction was carried out in the presence of EGSS (0.5 mM) at 25uC and aliquots were withdrawn after 2 min and 5 min, respectively. Similar to YsaN-His, crosslinking reactions of YsaL-His (100 mg) was performed in a total volume of 30 ml in the presence of 2 mL of 1.5% of freshly prepared glutaraldehyde. Reaction was incubated at 25uC for 5 min. In case of untagged-YsaL-YsaN-His complex, 200 mg of  purified complex was subjected to crosslinking reaction in the presence of 1.0 mM EGSS. Aliquots were withdrawn after 5 min and 10 min intervals. For all crosslinking experiments a suitable control (i.e. proteins incubated without crosslinkers) was used. The reaction was terminated by the addition of sample loading buffer for SDS PAGE. Following cross linking, samples were subjected to SDS-PAGE analysis.

Size Exclusion Chromatography
All

Dynamic Light Scattering Experiment (DLS)
YsaN-His was dialyzed in imidazole removal buffer and subjected to DLS in Malvern Zetasizer Nano-ZSH spectrophotometer with a protein concentration of 0.7 mg/ml at 25uC. Imidazole removal buffer was used as a control for the experiment. Molecular mass of the sample was calculated using hydrodynamic diameter.

ThioflavinT (ThT) Assay
A 40 mM of stock solution of Thioflavin T (ThT) was made using molar extinction coefficient (e 412 = 35000 M 21 cm 21 ). Prior to the experiment, YsaN-His was dialysed in imidazole removal buffer. Next 5 mM of YsaN-His was mixed with 4 mM of ThT solution and incubated for 1 hr at 25uC. Fluorescence emission intensity was monitored at 482 nm (range 470-500 nm) against the excitation of 440 nm. Results were recorded in Hitachi F4500 fluorescence F-7000 FL spectrophotometer. Fluorescence spectra for individual 4 mM of ThT and 5 mM of YsaN-His in imidazole removal buffer were also recorded for comparative analysis. The slit size for all experiment was 10 nm and each of the experiments was repeated for 5 times.

Secondary Structure Determination by Circular Dichroism
For circular dichroism (CD) experiments YsaL-His, YsaN-His, YsaN flr -His and different YsaN deletion mutants were dialyzed against phosphate buffer (50 mM sodium phosphate pH 8.0 100 mM NaCl). Far UV CD spectra for each of the samples were recorded from 190 nm to 250 nm in Jasco J-815 spectrophotometer at 1 nm interval, using 0.1 cm pathlength cuvette with a protein concentration of 20 mg/ml. For each CD spectrum, ellipticity in machine units [h] was plotted against wavelength (nm). Secondary structure within the protein was calculated by using the algorithms available in DichroWeb server.

Binding kinetics Analysis by Surface Plasmon Resonance
The binding of YsaL with YsaN, YsaN flr and all the his tagged deletion mutants were determined by Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) in Biacore23000 (BiacoreH -GE Healthcare). YsaN-His, YsaN flr -His and all his tagged-deletion mutants of YsaN (ligands) were immobilized on NTA-chip (BiacoreH -GE Healthcare) saturated with Ni 2+ solution as recommended by the manufacturer. Kinetics and binding analysis were performed in SPR running buffer (10 mM HEPES pH 7.4, 150 mM NaCl, 50 mM EDTA) and ligands were injected at a flow rate 5 ml/min for 10 minutes. Analyte (untagged-YsaL) was injected in the concentrations of 5 nM, 10 nM, 20 nM and 50 nM and sensogram was monitored for another 70 mins. All experiments were performed at 25uC. Sensogram analysis was done in Biaeval software v 4.1.

YsaN is an Oligomeric Magnesium-dependent walkertype ATPase
YsaN was predicted as a putative ATPase and found to be responsible for translocation of secretory proteins like YspC, YspD, YspA and YspB [37]. However, the biochemical and biophysical properties of YsaN remains largely unexplored. In this context, YsaN from Y.enterocolitica was cloned, overexpressed and characterized. Recombinant YsaN was purified to homogeneity as a his tag fusion with molecular mass of ,49.5 kDa ( Figure 1A). In a sulfo-EGS (EGSS) crosslinking experiment, YsaN-His was detected only in a higher oligomeric state ( Figure 1B). To analyze this higher oligomeric state and distinguish it from aggregative artifacts, YsaN-His was subjected to SEC in a Superdex 16/60 Hi-Load column followed by SDS-PAGE analysis. Results indicated that YsaN-His existed in both as a dodecamer (,603 kDa) and in a monomeric state (,49.5 kDa), with the dodecameric form being the predominant one [ Figure 1C, 1C (inset) and 1D]. YsaN-His was also subjected to DLS and the hydrodynamic radius (R H ) was used to estimate the molecular weight. The peaks had R H corresponding to ,50 kDa (10% of sample) and ,590 kDa (90% of sample) corresponding to monomeric and oligomeric forms respectively ( Figure 1E). Thioflavin T is a common fluorophore used to identify b-amyloid formation and is detected by a characteristic red shift of its emission spectra. When YsaN-His was incubated with Thioflavin T (ThT) no binding was observed (figure S1) and thereby suggesting the non-aggregative nature. Although, such experiment is helpful for studying and distinguishing aggregative artifacts from oligomers, we cannot completely rule out the possibility of YsaN-His to form aggregates. All the above experiments had good agreement with SEC data and indicated that YsaN existed in dodecameric and monomeric forms. Such higher oligomeric state (dodecameric state) is exhibited by many T3S ATPases for elevated enzymatic activity [41].
Similar to other ATP hydrolyzing enzymes, YsaN consists of Walker A (residue 160-167) -'AXXXXGKT(S) (X-any aminoacids) and Walker B (residue 246-251) -'hhhhDS' (hhydrophobic aminoacids) motifs. Enzymatic studies of YsaN indicated that it has the highest preference for deoxy ATP (dATP) as substrate among all deoxynucleotides (figure S2A). Using ATP as a substrate, the role of the divalent ions was also verified. Like its plasmid counterpart YscN and other T3S ATPases, Mg 2+ was essential for ATP hydrolysis by YsaN-His (figure S2B). Addition of metal ion chelator (EDTA) in ATPase buffer with Mg 2+ or ATPase buffer without Mg 2+ resulted in several fold reduction in ATPase activity. Optimum activity was observed in Tris pH 8.0 (figure S2C) at 30uC (figure S2D). ATPase activity of YsaN-His was comparable at 30uC and 37uC. Owing to the precipitation nature of YsaN-His at 37uC, all experiments were conducted at 30uC. YsaN-His mediated ATP hydrolysis was reduced considerably below pH 6.5 and above pH 8.5 and at temperatures above 42uC and below 25uC, respectively.
When plotted against ATP (substrate) concentration, ATPase activity of YsaN-His (Ni-NTA purified) followed sigmoidal kinetics and satisfied Hill equation ( Figure 1F). It had a mean K 0.5 of 714614.84 mM and a V max of 2.9560.14 mmol of P i releasedmin 21 mg 21 , data which are comparable to other T3S ATPases -InvC, YscN, EscN and FliI. The Hill coefficient (n) of 1.93160.115 indicated positive cooperativity.
Ni-NTA purified YsaN-His existed in both dodecameric and monomeric states. To examine their functionality, relative ATPase activity of both these forms was estimated. Therefore, YsaN-His oligomer -monomer mixture (i.e. Ni-NTA eluates) was separated by SEC and individual states were immediately analysed for their relative ATP hydrolysing capacity. YsaN-His dodecamer was more active in hydrolysing ATP as compared to its monomeric form. YsaN-His monomer-oligomer mixture was used as a control in this experiment. (Figure 1G).

Identification of YE3555 as a Negative Regulator of YsaN Using Computational Methods
Since all T3S ATPases are controlled by specific negative regulators, the existence of a negative regulator was examined in this Ysa-Ysp T3SS of Y.enterocolitica. Protein BLAST analysis using YscL as the query against Yersinia enterocolitica O:8 non-redundant database, retrieved 11 hits. Proteins, clustered in the same protein family or clan, are usually endowed with similar structures and functions. So, all of these hits were analyzed for their respective protein families in the Pfam database (Table 3). Only 2 hits were found to be in the HrpE/YscL/FliH family and belonged to the same clan (CL0255). Since YP_001006743.1 was already annotated as a flagellar assembly protein-FliH, so YP_001007713.1 (hypothetical protein YE3555) was of primary attention. When compared with 27 unique protein sequences from the HrpE/ YscL/FliH family using multiple sequence analysis (figure S3), YE3555 was found to be in a cluster with YscL, PscL, SctL and HrpE (all known T3S ATPase negative regulators) in the phylogram. The other cluster consisted of proteins from different bacterial species that largely belonged to flagellar assembly protein, FliH ( figure S4A). This suggested that YE3555 had close evolutionary relationship with the T3S ATPase regulators. Primary sequence analysis of YE3555 revealed the presence of the repeat sequences-AXXXGXXXG and AXXXA (X representing any amino acids), a characteristic feature of the YscL/FliH ATPase regulator family proteins [39] ( figure S4B and S4C). Furthermore, the presence of ye3555 within the 200 kb Ysa locus of Y. enterocolitica and in the close vicinity of ysaN (ye3544), indicated that it might be an integral part of this genomic encoded T3SS in this organism ( figure S4D). Such predictions demanded careful and detailed experimental investigation to validate the candidature of YE3555 as a T3S ATPase negative regulator.

YsaL is Dimeric in Solution with Predominant Helical Structure
Based on bioinformatics analysis, which strongly implied YE3555/YsaL to be a negative regulator, we tried to characterize it biochemically and biophysically. Overexpressed YsaL-His was completely insoluble, compelling purification under denaturing condition. Therefore, YsaL-His was refolded and purified to homogeneity by Ni-NTA affinity chromatography. Purity of the sample was analyzed by SDS-PAGE and bands corresponding to ,27 kDa (Figure 2A) were observed. In a gluteraldehydecrosslinking experiment, a band with a molecular mass of ,54 kDa was observed for YsaL-His -probably indicating a homodimeric association ( Figure 2B). This idea was further supported by the observation of a peak in the SEC profile corresponding to ,48 kDa [ Figure 2C, 2C (inset) and 2D]. YsaL-His did not have any ATP hydrolysis capacity as inferred from the malachite green assay (data not shown). Secondary structure analysis revealed that YsaL in His tagged or untagged form had a high helical content (a helix -63-64%) and considerable b-sheets -11-12%. The remaining part was assumed to form random coils or b-turns ( Figure 2E). Experimental analysis by Far UV CD was in close agreement with secondary structure prediction (Table S1).

YsaL co-purifies with YsaN in Soluble form and Negatively Regulates YsaN ATPase Activity by Reducing Oligomerization
Bioinformatical studies strongly support YsaL as negative regulator of ATPase activity. However, to establish this experimentally, we co-expressed pET28a-YsaN and pACYC Duet-YsaL in E.coli BL21 (DE3) cells to produce YsaN-His and untagged YsaL, respectively. Ni-NTA pull down experiments from the IPTG induced cell lysates confirmed that untagged YsaL (,24.3 kDa) associates with YsaN-His (,49.5 kDa) and the complex was co-purified ( Figure 3A). Untagged YsaL (refolded), which did not bind to Ni-NTA was used as a negative control (data not shown) for the experiment. For further purification, eluates from the Ni-NTA affinity chromatography were subjected to SEC followed by SDS PAGE analysis. SEC gave a peak corresponding to a heterotrimeric assembly (untagged YsaL: YsaN-His -2:1) for untagged YsaL -YsaN-His complex (,102 kDa) [ Figure 3B and    Figure 3E]. Further increase in molar ratio of YsaL-YsaN (ratio 2.5:1 and 3:1) had little or no effect in reduction of ATPase activity. ATPase activities of soluble untagged YsaL-YsaN-His complex and that of refolded YsaL (His tag) incubated with soluble YsaN-His in the molar ratio 2:1, were highly comparable [ Figure 3E (inset)]. Thus, refolded YsaL-His was equally competent in repressing ATPase activity of YsaN when compared with soluble untagged YsaL-YsaN-His complex. Addition of control protein BSA or thermally denatured untagged YsaL to YsaN-His did not reduce ATPase activity as confirmed from malachite green assay (data not shown).

Discussion
Although the genome-encoded Ysa-Ysp T3SS in Yersinia enterocolitica has many genes contributing to its virulence, most of them remain largely uncharacterized and unexplored. Gene knockdown experiments have only envisaged YsaN as a putative ATPase that promotes virulence in this organism by translocating secretary proteins [37]. In this study, we have successfully purified and characterized YsaN as a magnesium-dependent ATP-hydrolyzing enzyme. In fact absence of Mg 2+ considerably reduced its ATP hydrolysis capacity. Initial studies of YsaN using SEC, DLS and Thioflavin T indicated that YsaN remains predominantly in a dodecameric state with small amount in a monomeric form. Enzymatic analysis further revealed that dodecameric YsaN is more active than its monomer. Such homo-dodecameric assembly accounts for elevated enzymatic activity [41] and is probably essential for translocation of T3SS substrates (effectors/translocators) during infection with Yersinia enterocolitica [37]. A common characteristic feature of almost all T3S and flagellar ATPase is that they are tightly controlled within the microbial pathogens to translocate virulence factors when required [18] , [33][34][35][36]. In this context existence of such a regulator for YsaN was examined in Yersinia enterocolitica. Computational prediction strongly indicated Ye3555/YsaL to be a negative regulator of YsaN. Lack of any consensus sequence made such identification difficult. However, the presence of Glycine-Alanine repeats suggested that this hypothetical protein is probably a member of the YscL/FliH/ HrpE family [39]. Refolded YsaL was predominantly a helical protein existing in homodimeric state, which is a common attribute of most T3S and flagellar ATPase regulators [33], [34], [45]. Successful co-purification of untagged-YsaL with YsaN-His by affinity chromatography clearly indicated that YsaL is an interacting partner of YsaN. This interaction was further investigated by SPR, which showed that YsaL associated with YsaN strongly, having a K D of 35 nM. From 1:1 Hill-Langmuir equation fit in SPR, it was inferred that YsaL interacted with YsaN only in homodimeric state, instead of binding as two separate monomers. SEC analysis and crosslinking experiments indicated that YsaL associates with YsaN in a heterotrimeric form with stoichiometry of 2:1 (YsaL: YsaN). Enzymatic analysis by malachite green assay revealed that maximum inhibition of YsaN activity by YsaL occurs in the same molar ratio of 2:1 (YsaL: YsaN). Although the exact mechanism of such regulation remains unclear, it is anticipated that YsaL binds with YsaN and prevents dodecamerization, resulting in inhibition of ATPase activity. Thus YsaN is retained in a weakly activated state (monomer) in the cytosol of Yersinia enterocolitica by dimeric YsaL. As compared to N terminal residues, C terminal deletions of YsaN hardly affected stable YsaL-YsaN complex formation but resulted in reduced ATPase activity, probably due to the loss of helical content. N terminal constructs had lower b sheet content and higher ATP hydrolysis capacity, compared to their C terminal counterparts. Interaction studies of YsaN D (1)(2)(3)(4)(5) with YsaL using SPR, indicate that such residues might not be directly involved in YsaL-YsaN complex formation rather they play an auxiliary role in this process. From molecular mapping of YsaN using deletion constructs followed by SPR analysis, it is evident that absences of N terminal 6-20 aminoacids (SCAHPSRIHGCLLEA) affect stable YsaL-YsaN complex formation. We reckon that dimeric YsaL interacts with YsaN monomer at the N terminus, inhibiting oligomerization resulting in down regulation of its ATPase activity ( Figure 6). This is our first attempt at successfully identifying and characterizing YsaL (YE3555) as a negative a regulator of YsaN, as evident from the above experiments. The presence of such regulator and ATPase also indicate independent functionality of this relatively new Ysa-Ysp T3SS. However, to reach any conclusions, experimental verification is necessary. Future studies with detailed insight into the exact mechanism by YsaL-YsaN complex formation during gastrointestinal phase of infection of Yersinia enterocolitica will be essential in understanding the pathogenicity of this organism. In the Ysc-Yop T3SS, YscL probably tethers YscN to the C ring of the injectisome with the help of YscQ, one of the structural components of the C ring antechamber [33], [42]. YscK might act as a cargo delivery protein and probably allows localization of translocator/effector-chaperone complexes at the base of injectisome prior to their delivery into the host [43]. Sequence analysis strongly indicated YsaQ and YsaK in