Sugar-binding sites of the HA1 subcomponent of Clostridium botulinum type C progenitor toxin

J Mol Biol. 2008 Feb 22;376(3):854-67. doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2007.12.031. Epub 2007 Dec 23.

Abstract

Clostridium botulinum type C 16S progenitor toxin contains a hemagglutinin (HA) subcomponent, designated HA1, which appears to play an important role in the effective internalization of the toxin in gastrointestinal epithelial cells and in creating a broad specificity for the oligosaccharide structure that corresponds to various targets. In this study, using the recombinant protein fused to glutathione S-transferase, we investigated the binding specificity of the HA1 subcomponent to sugars and estimated the binding sites of HA1 based on X-ray crystallography and soaking experiments using various sugars. N-Acetylneuraminic acid, N-acetylgalactosamine, and galactose effectively inhibited the binding that occurs between glutathione S-transferase-HA1 and mucins, whereas N-acetylglucosamine and glucose did not inhibit it. The crystal structures of HA1 complex with N-acetylneuraminic acid, N-acetylgalactosamine, and galactose were also determined. There are two sugar-binding sites, sites I and II. Site I corresponds to the electron densities noted for all sugars and is located at the C-terminal beta-trefoil domain, while site II corresponds to the electron densities noted only for galactose. An aromatic amino acid residue, Trp176, at site I has a stacking interaction with the hexose ring of the sugars. On the other hand, there is no aromatic residue at site II; thus, the interaction with galactose seems to be poor. The double mutant W176A at site I and D271F at site II has no avidity for N-acetylneuraminic acid but has avidity for galactose. In this report, the binding specificity of botulinum C16S toxin HA1 to various sugars is demonstrated based on its structural features.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Clostridium botulinum / chemistry
  • Clostridium botulinum / metabolism
  • Clostridium botulinum type C / chemistry*
  • Clostridium botulinum type C / genetics
  • Clostridium botulinum type C / metabolism
  • Crystallography, X-Ray
  • Hemagglutinins / chemistry
  • Hemagglutinins / metabolism
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mucins / metabolism
  • Mutagenesis, Site-Directed
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / chemistry
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / genetics
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / metabolism
  • Sequence Alignment

Substances

  • Hemagglutinins
  • Mucins
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins

Associated data

  • PDB/2EHI
  • PDB/2EHM
  • PDB/2EHN