Abstract
Blood-feeding exoparasites are rich sources of protease inhibitors, and the mosquito Aedes aegypti, which is a vector of Dengue virus, Yellow fever virus, Chikungunya virus and Zika virus, is no exception. AaTI is a single-domain, noncanonical Kazal-type serine proteinase inhibitor from A. aegypti that recognizes both digestive trypsin-like serine proteinases and the central protease in blood clotting, thrombin, albeit with an affinity that is three orders of magnitude lower. Here, the 1.4 Å resolution crystal structure of AaTI is reported from extremely tightly packed crystals (∼22% solvent content), revealing the structural determinants for the observed inhibitory profile of this molecule.
Keywords:
Aedes aegypti; Dengue fever; Kazal inhibitor; Yellow fever; Zika virus; anticoagulants; protein–protein interactions; salivary glands; thrombin; trypsin.
MeSH terms
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Aedes / chemistry*
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Aedes / metabolism
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Amino Acid Sequence
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Animals
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Binding Sites
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Cloning, Molecular
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Crystallography, X-Ray
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Gene Expression
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Genetic Vectors / chemistry
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Genetic Vectors / metabolism
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Insect Proteins / chemistry*
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Insect Proteins / genetics
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Insect Proteins / metabolism
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Insect Vectors / chemistry*
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Insect Vectors / metabolism
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Molecular Docking Simulation
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Pichia / genetics
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Pichia / metabolism
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Protein Binding
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Protein Conformation, alpha-Helical
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Protein Conformation, beta-Strand
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Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs
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Protein Multimerization
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Recombinant Proteins / chemistry
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Recombinant Proteins / genetics
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Recombinant Proteins / metabolism
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Sequence Alignment
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Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
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Serine Peptidase Inhibitors, Kazal Type / chemistry*
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Serine Peptidase Inhibitors, Kazal Type / genetics
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Serine Peptidase Inhibitors, Kazal Type / metabolism
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Thrombin / antagonists & inhibitors
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Thrombin / chemistry*
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Thrombin / genetics
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Thrombin / metabolism
Substances
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Insect Proteins
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Recombinant Proteins
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Serine Peptidase Inhibitors, Kazal Type
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Thrombin