Profiling sorghum-microbe interactions with a specialized photoaffinity probe identifies key sorgoleone binders in <i>Acinetobacter pittii</i>

Interactions between plants and soil microbial communities that benefit plant growth and enhance nutrient acquisition are driven by the selective release of metabolites from plant roots, or root exudation. To investigate these plant-microbe interactions, we developed a photoaffinity probe based on sorgoleone (<u>so</u>rgoleone <u>d</u>iazirine <u>a</u>lkyne for <u>p</u>hoto<u>a</u>ffinity <u>l</u>abeling, SoDA-PAL), a hydrophobic secondary metabolite and allelochemical produced in <i>Sorghum bicolor</i> root exudates. We applied SoDA-PAL to the identification of sorgoleone-binding proteins in <i>Acinetobacter pittii</i> SO1, a potential plant growth-promoting microbe isolated from sorghum rhizosphere soil. Competitive photoaffinity labeling of <i>A. pittii</i> whole cell lysates with SoDA-PAL identified 137 statistically enriched proteins, including putative transporters, transcriptional regulators, and a subset of proteins with predicted enzymatic functions. We performed computational protein modeling and docking with sorgoleone to prioritize candidates for experimental validation and then confirmed binding of sorgoleone to four of these proteins <i>in vitro</i>: the α/β fold hydrolase SrgB (OH685_09420), a fumarylacetoacetase (OH685_02300), a lysophospholipase (OH685_14215), and an unannotated hypothetical protein (OH685_18625). Our application of this specialized sorgoleone-based probe coupled with structural bioinformatics streamlines the identification of microbial proteins involved in metabolite recognition, metabolism, and toxicity, widening our understanding of the range of cellular pathways that can be affected by a plant secondary metabolite.IMPORTANCEHere, we demonstrate that a photoaffinity-based chemical probe modeled after sorgoleone, an important secondary metabolite released by sorghum roots, can be used to identify microbial proteins that directly interact with sorgoleone. We applied this probe to the sorghum-associated bacterium <i>Acinetobacter pittii</i> and showed that probe labeling is dose-dependent and sensitive to competition with purified sorgoleone. Coupling the probe with proteomics and computational analysis facilitated the identification of putative sorgoleone binders, including a protein implicated in a conserved pathway essential for sorgoleone catabolism. We anticipate that discoveries seeded by this workflow will expand our understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which specific metabolites in root exudates shape the sorghum rhizosphere microbiome.