| 1. |
- Coombes, D., et al.
(författare)
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The basis for non-canonical ROK family function in the N-acetylmannosamine kinase from the pathogen Staphylococcus aureus
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Biological Chemistry. - 0021-9258. ; 295:10, s. 3301-3315
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In environments where glucose is limited, some pathogenic bacteria metabolize host-derived sialic acid as a nutrient source. N-Acetylmannosamine kinase (NanK) is the second enzyme of the bacterial sialic acid import and degradation pathway and adds phosphate to N-acetylmannosamine using ATP to prime the molecule for future pathway reactions. Sequence alignments reveal that Gram-positive NanK enzymes belong to the Repressor, ORF, Kinase (ROK) family, but many lack the canonical Zn-binding motif expected for this function, and the sugar-binding EXGH motif is altered to EXGY. As a result, it is unclear how they perform this important reaction. Here, we study the Staphylococcus aureus NanK (SaNanK), which is the first characterization of a Gram-positive NanK. We report the kinetic activity of SaNanK along with the ligand?free, N-acetylmannosamine?bound and substrate analog GlcNAc?bound crystal structures (2.33, 2.20, and 2.20 ? resolution, respectively). These demonstrate, in combination with small-angle X-ray scattering, that SaNanK is a dimer that adopts a closed conformation upon substrate binding. Analysis of the EXGY motif reveals that the tyrosine binds to the N-acetyl group to select for the ?boat? conformation of N-acetylmannosamine. Moreover, SaNanK has a stacked arginine pair coordinated by negative residues critical for thermal stability and catalysis. These combined elements serve to constrain the active site and orient the substrate in lieu of Zn binding, representing a significant departure from canonical NanK binding. This characterization provides insight into differences in the ROK family and highlights a novel area for antimicrobial discovery to fight Gram-positive and S. aureus infections.
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| 2. |
- Eckmair, B., et al.
(författare)
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Glycosylation at an evolutionary nexus: the brittle star Ophiactis savignyi expresses both vertebrate and invertebrate N-glycomic features
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Biological Chemistry. - 0021-9258. ; 295:10, s. 3173-3188
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Echinoderms are among the most primitive deuterostomes and have been used as model organisms to understand chordate biology because of their close evolutionary relationship to this phylogenetic group. However, there are almost no data available regarding the N-glycomic capacity of echinoderms, which are otherwise known to produce a diverse set of species-specific glycoconjugates, including ones heavily modified by fucose, sulfate, and sialic acid residues. To increase the knowledge of diversity of carbohydrate structures within this phylum, here we conducted an in-depth analysis of N-glycans from a brittle star (Ophiactis savignyi) as an example member of the class Ophiuroidea. To this end, we performed a multi-step N-glycan analysis by HPLC and various exoglyosidase and chemical treatments in combination with MALDI-TOF MS and MS/MS. Using this approach, we found a wealth of hybrid and complex oligosaccharide structures reminiscent of those in higher vertebrates as well as some classical invertebrate glycan structures. 70% of these N-glycans were anionic, carrying either sialic acid, sulfate, or phosphate residues. In terms of glycophylogeny, our data position the brittle star between invertebrates and vertebrates and confirm the high diversity of N-glycosylation in lower organisms.
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| 3. |
- Flowers, Sarah A., et al.
(författare)
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Decrease of core 2 O-glycans on synovial lubricin in osteoarthritis reduces galectin-3 mediated crosslinking
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Biological Chemistry. - 0021-9258 .- 1083-351X. ; 295:47, s. 16023-16036
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The synovial fluid glycoprotein lubricin (also known as proteoglycan 4) is a mucin-type O-linked glycosylated biological lubricant implicated to be involved in osteoarthritis (OA) development. Lubricin's ability to reduce friction is related to its glycosylation consisting of sialylated and unsialylated Tn-antigens and core 1 and core 2 structures. The glycans on lubricin have also been suggested to be involved in crosslinking and stabilization of the lubricating superficial layer of cartilage by mediating interaction between lubricin and galectin-3. However, with the spectrum of glycans being found on lubricin, the glycan candidates involved in this interaction were unknown. Here, we confirm that the core 2 O-linked glycans mediate this lubricin-galectin-3 interaction, shown by surface plasmon resonance data indicating that recombinant lubricin (rhPRG4) devoid of core 2 structures did not bind to recombinant galectin-3. Conversely, transfection of Chinese hamster ovary cells with the core 2 GlcNAc transferase acting on a mucin-type O-glycoprotein displayed increased galectin-3 binding. Both the level of galectin-3 and the galectin-3 interactions with synovial lubricin were found to be decreased in late-stage OA patients, coinciding with an increase in unsialylated core 1 O-glycans (T-antigens) and Tn-antigens. These data suggest a defect in crosslinking of surface-active molecules in OA and provide novel insights into OA molecular pathology.
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| 4. |
- Hellman, Urban, 1966-, et al.
(författare)
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Presence of hyaluronan in lung alveoli in severe Covid-19 : an opening for new treatment options?
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Biological Chemistry. - : American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. - 0021-9258 .- 1083-351X. ; 295:45, s. 15418-15422
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Severe corona virus disease 2019 (Covid-19) is characterized by inflammation of the lungs with increasing respiratory impairment. In fatal Covid-19, lungs at autopsy have been filled with a clear liquid jelly. However, the nature of this finding has not yet been determined.The aim of the study was to demonstrate if the lungs of fatal Covid-19 contain hyaluronan as it is associated with inflammation and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and may have the appearance of liquid jelly.Lung tissue obtained at autopsy from three deceased Covid-19 patients was processed for hyaluronan histochemistry using a direct staining method and compared with staining in normal lung tissue.Stainings confirmed that hyaluronan is obstructing alveoli with presence in exudate and plugs, as well as in thickened perialveolar interstitium. In contrast, normal lungs only showed hyaluronan in intact alveolar walls and perivascular tissue. This is the first study to confirm prominent hyaluronan exudates in the alveolar spaces of Covid-19 lungs, supporting the notion that the macromolecule is involved in ARDS caused by SARS-CoV-2. The present finding may open up for new treatment options in severe Covid-19, aiming at reducing the presence and production of hyaluronan in the lungs.
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| 5. |
- Jeppsson, Simon, et al.
(författare)
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A predicted transmembrane region in plant diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 regulates specificity toward very-long-chain acyl-CoAs
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Biological Chemistry. - 0021-9258 .- 1083-351X. ; 295, s. 15398-15406
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Triacylglycerols are the main constituent of seed oil. The specific fatty acid composition of this oil is strongly impacted by the substrate specificities of acyltransferases involved in lipid synthesis, such as the integral membrane enzyme diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT). Two forms of DGAT, DGAT1 and DGAT2, are thought to contribute to the formation of seed oil, and previous characterizations of various DGAT2 enzymes indicate that these often are associated with the incorporation of unusual fatty acids. However, the basis of DGAT2's acyl-donor specificity is not known because of the inherent challenges of predicting structural features of integral membrane enzymes. The recent characterization of DGAT2 enzymes from Brassica napus reveals that DGAT2 enzymes with similar amino acid sequences exhibit starkly contrasting acyl-donor specificities. Here we have designed and biochemically tested a range of chimeric enzymes, substituting parts of these B. napus DGAT2 enzymes with each other, allowing us to pinpoint a region that dramatically affects the specificity toward 22:1-CoA. It may thus be possible to redesign the acyl-donor specificity of DGAT2 enzymes, potentially altering the fatty acid composition of seed oil. Further, the characterization of a DGAT2 chimera between Arabidopsis and B. napus demonstrates that the specificity regulated by this region is transferrable across species. The identified region contains two predicted transmembrane helices that appear to reoccur in a wide range of plant DGAT2 orthologues, suggesting that it is a general feature of plant DGAT2 enzymes.
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| 6. |
- Karlsson, Elin, et al.
(författare)
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Mapping the transition state for a binding reaction between ancient intrinsically disordered proteins
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Biological Chemistry. - : AMER SOC BIOCHEMISTRY MOLECULAR BIOLOGY INC. - 0021-9258 .- 1083-351X. ; 295:51, s. 17698-17712
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Intrinsically disordered protein domains often have multiple binding partners. It is plausible that the strength of pairing with specific partners evolves from an initial low affinity to a higher affinity. However, little is known about the molecular changes in the binding mechanism that would facilitate such a transition. We previously showed that the interaction between two intrinsically disordered domains, NCBD and CID, likely emerged in an ancestral deuterostome organism as a low-affinity interaction that subsequently evolved into a higher-affinity interaction before the radiation of modern vertebrate groups. Here we map native contacts in the transition states of the low-affinity ancestral and high-affinity human NCBD/CID interactions. We show that the coupled binding and folding mechanism is overall similar but with a higher degree of native hydrophobic contact formation in the transition state of the ancestral complex and more heterogeneous transient interactions, including electrostatic pairings, and an increased disorder for the human complex. Adaptation to new binding partners may be facilitated by this ability to exploit multiple alternative transient interactions while retaining the overall binding and folding pathway.
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| 7. |
- Kim, H., et al.
(författare)
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Calsyntenin-3 interacts with both ?- and ?-neurexins in the regulation of excitatory synaptic innervation in specific Schaffer collateral pathways
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Biological Chemistry. - 0021-9258. ; 295:27, s. 9244-9262
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Calsyntenin-3 (Clstn3) is a postsynaptic adhesion molecule that induces presynaptic differentiation via presynaptic neurexins (Nrxns), but whether Nrxns directly bind to Clstn3 has been a matter of debate. Here, using LC?MS/MS?based protein analysis, confocal microscopy, RNAscope assays, and electrophysiological recordings, we show that ?-Nrxns directly interact via their LNS domain with Clstn3 and Clstn3 cadherin domains. Expression of splice site 4 (SS4) insert?positive ?-Nrxn variants, but not insert?negative variants, reversed the impaired Clstn3 synaptogenic activity observed in Nrxn-deficient neurons. Consistently, Clstn3 selectively formed complexes with SS4?positive Nrxnsin vivo. Neuron-specific Clstn3 deletion caused significant reductions in number of excitatory synaptic inputs. Moreover, expression of Clstn3 cadherin domains in CA1 neurons of Clstn3 conditional knockout mice rescued structural deficits in excitatory synapses, especially within the stratum radiatum layer. Collectively, our results suggest that Clstn3 links to SS4?positive Nrxns to induce presynaptic differentiation and orchestrate excitatory synapse development in specific hippocampal neural circuits, including Schaffer collateral afferents.
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| 8. |
- Laursen, Louise, et al.
(författare)
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Functional interplay between protein domains in a supramodular structure involving the postsynaptic density protein PSD-95
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Biological Chemistry. - : AMER SOC BIOCHEMISTRY MOLECULAR BIOLOGY INC. - 0021-9258 .- 1083-351X. ; 295:7, s. 1992-2000
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cell scaffolding and signaling are governed by protein–protein interactions. Although a particular interaction is often defined by two specific domains binding to each other, this interaction often occurs in the context of other domains in multidomain proteins. How such adjacent domains form supertertiary structures and modulate protein–protein interactions has only recently been addressed and is incompletely understood. The postsynaptic density protein PSD-95 contains a three-domain supramodule, denoted PSG, which consists of PDZ, Src homology 3 (SH3), and guanylate kinase-like domains. The PDZ domain binds to the C terminus of its proposed natural ligand, CXXC repeat–containing interactor of PDZ3 domain (CRIPT), and results from previous experiments using only the isolated PDZ domain are consistent with the simplest scenario for a protein–protein interaction; namely, a two-state mechanism. Here we analyzed the binding kinetics of the PSG supramodule with CRIPT. We show that PSG binds CRIPT via a more complex mechanism involving two conformational states interconverting on the second timescale. Both conformational states bound a CRIPT peptide with similar affinities but with different rates, and the distribution of the two conformational states was slightly shifted upon CRIPT binding. Our results are consistent with recent structural findings of conformational changes in PSD-95 and demonstrate how conformational transitions in supertertiary structures can shape the ligand-binding energy landscape and modulate protein–protein interactions.
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| 9. |
- Liebau, Jobst, et al.
(författare)
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Unveiling the activation dynamics of a fold-switch bacterial glycosyltransferase by19F NMR
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Biological Chemistry. - : American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. - 0021-9258 .- 1083-351X. ; 295:29, s. 9868-9878
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Fold-switch pathways remodel the secondary structure topology of proteins in response to the cellular environment. It is a major challenge to understand the dynamics of these folding processes. Here, we conducted an in-depth analysis of the α-helix–to–β-strand and β-strand–to–α-helix transitions and domain motions displayed by the essential mannosyltransferase PimA from mycobacteria. Using 19F NMR, we identified four functionally relevant states of PimA that coexist in dynamic equilibria on millisecond-to-second timescales in solution. We discovered that fold-switching is a slow process, on the order of seconds, whereas domain motions occur simultaneously but are substantially faster, on the order of milliseconds. Strikingly, the addition of substrate accelerated the fold-switching dynamics of PimA. We propose a model in which the fold-switching dynamics constitute a mechanism for PimA activation.
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| 10. |
- Madar Johansson, Miralda, et al.
(författare)
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The binding mechanism of the virulence factor Streptococcus suis adhesin P subtype to globotetraosylceramide is associated with systemic disease
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Biological Chemistry. - 0021-9258 .- 1083-351X. ; 295:42, s. 14305-14324
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Streptococcus suis is part of the pig commensal microbiome but strains can also be pathogenic, causing pneumonia and meningitis in pigs as well as zoonotic meningitis. According to genomic analysis, S. suis is divided into asymptomatic carriage, respiratory and systemic strains with distinct genomic signatures. Because the strategies to target pathogenic S. suis are limited, new therapeutic approaches are needed. The virulence factor S. suis adhesin P (SadP) recognizes the galabiose Gal alpha 1-4Gal-oligosaccharide. Based on its oligosaccharide fine specificity, SadP can be divided into subtypes P-N and P-O. We show here that subtype P-N is distributed in the systemic strains causing meningitis, whereas type P-O is found in asymptomatic carriage and respiratory strains. Both types of SadP are shown to predominantly bind to pig lung globotriaosylceramide (Gb3). However, SadP adhesin from systemic subtype P-N strains also binds to globotetraosylceramide (Gb4). Mutagenesis studies of the galabiose-binding domain of type P-N SadP adhesin showed that the amino acid asparagine 285, which is replaced by an aspartate residue in type P-O SadP, was required for binding to Gb4 and, strikingly, was also required for interaction with the glycomimetic inhibitor phenylurea-galabiose. Molecular dynamics simulations provided insight into the role of Asn-285 for Gb4 and phenylurea-galabiose binding, suggesting additional hydrogen bonding to terminal GalNAc of Gb4 and the urea group. Thus, the Asn-285-mediated molecular mechanism of type P-N SadP binding to Gb4 could be used to selectively target S. suis in systemic disease without interfering with commensal strains, opening up new avenues for interventional strategies against this pathogen.
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