Characterization of a glycan-binding complex of minor pilins completes the analysis of Streptococcus sanguinis type 4 pili subunits

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2216237120

Authors: Meriam Shahin (Imperial College London) , Devon Sheppard (Imperial College London) , Claire Raynaud (Imperial College London) , Jamie-Lee Berry (Imperial College London) , Ishwori Gurung (Imperial College London) , Lisete M. Silva (Imperial College London) , Ten Feizi (Imperial College London) , Yan Liu (Imperial College London) , Vladimir Pelicic (Imperial College London; CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université (Unité Mixte de Recherche 7283))
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences , VOL 120

State: Published (Approved)
Published: January 2023
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 17221 , 23620

Abstract: Type 4 filaments (T4F)—of which type 4 pili (T4P) are the archetype—are a superfamily of nanomachines nearly ubiquitous in prokaryotes. T4F are polymers of one major pilin, which also contain minor pilins whose roles are often poorly understood. Here, we complete the structure/function analysis of the full set of T4P pilins in the opportunistic bacterial pathogen Streptococcus sanguinis. We determined the structure of the minor pilin PilA, which is unexpectedly similar to one of the subunits of a tip-located complex of four minor pilins, widely conserved in T4F. We found that PilA interacts and dramatically stabilizes the minor pilin PilC. We determined the structure of PilC, showing that it is a modular pilin with a lectin module binding a subset of glycans prevalent in the human glycome, the host of S. sanguinis. Altogether, our findings support a model whereby the minor pilins in S. sanguinis T4P form a tip-located complex promoting adhesion to various host receptors. This has general implications for T4F.

Journal Keywords: type 4 pili; pilin; adhesion

Diamond Keywords: Bacteria

Subject Areas: Biology and Bio-materials


Instruments: I03-Macromolecular Crystallography , I04-1-Macromolecular Crystallography (fixed wavelength) , I04-Macromolecular Crystallography

Added On: 23/01/2023 09:19

Documents:
pnas.2216237120.pdf

Discipline Tags:

Pathogens Health & Wellbeing Structural biology Life Sciences & Biotech

Technical Tags:

Diffraction Macromolecular Crystallography (MX)