Abstract
Background: The Staphylococcus aureus collagen-binding protein Cna mediates bacterial adherence to collagen. The primary sequence of Cna has a non-repetitive collagen-binding A region, followed by the repetitive B region. The B region has one to four 23 kDa repeat units (B1-B4), depending on the strain of origin. The affinity of the A region for collagen is independent of the B region. However, the B repeat units have been suggested to serve as a 'stalk' that projects the A region from the bacterial surface and thus facilitate bacterial adherence to collagen. To understand the biological role of these B-region repeats we determined their three- dimensional structure. Results: B1 has two domains (D1 and D2) placed side-by-side. D1 and D2 have similar secondary structure and exhibit a unique fold that resembles but is the inverse of the immunoglobulin-like (IgG-like) domains. Comparison with similar immunoglobulin superfamily (IgSF) structures shows novel packing arrangements between the D1 and D2 domains. In the B1B2 crystal structure, an omission of a single glycine residue in the D2-D3 linker loop, compared to the D1-D2 and D3-D4 linker loops, resulted in projection of the D3 and D4 in a spatially new orientation. We also present a model for B1B2B3B4. Conclusions: The B region of the Cna collagen adhesin has a novel fold that is reminiscent of but is inverse in nature to the IgG fold. This B region assembly could effectively provide the needed flexibility and stability for presenting the ligand binding A region away from the bacterial cell surface.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 67-78 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Structure |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 1 2000 |
Keywords
- Cna
- Collagen
- IgSF
- MSCRAMM
- Staphylococcus aureus
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Molecular Biology
- Structural Biology