Structure of the CFA/III major pilin subunit CofA from human enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli determined at 0.90 Å resolution by sulfur-SAD phasing

Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr. 2012 Oct;68(Pt 10):1418-29. doi: 10.1107/S0907444912034464. Epub 2012 Sep 13.

Abstract

CofA, a major pilin subunit of colonization factor antigen III (CFA/III), forms pili that mediate small-intestinal colonization by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC). In this study, the crystal structure of an N-terminally truncated version of CofA was determined by single-wavelength anomalous diffraction (SAD) phasing using five sulfurs in the protein. Given the counterbalance between anomalous signal strength and the undesired X-ray absorption of the solvent, diffraction data were collected at 1.5 Å resolution using synchrotron radiation. These data were sufficient to elucidate the sulfur substructure at 1.38 Å resolution. The low solvent content (29%) of the crystal necessitated that density modification be performed with an additional 0.9 Å resolution data set to reduce the phase error caused by the small sulfur anomalous signal. The CofA structure showed the αβ-fold typical of type IVb pilins and showed high structural homology to that of TcpA for toxin-coregulated pili of Vibrio cholerae, including spatial distribution of key residues critical for pilin self-assembly. A pilus-filament model of CofA was built by computational docking and molecular-dynamics simulation using the previously reported filament model of TcpA as a structural template. This model revealed that the CofA filament surface was highly negatively charged and that a 23-residue-long loop between the α1 and α2 helices filled the gap between the pilin subunits. These characteristics could provide a unique binding epitope for the CFA/III pili of ETEC compared with other type IVb pili.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Crystallography, X-Ray
  • Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli / chemistry*
  • Escherichia coli Proteins / chemistry*
  • Fimbriae Proteins / chemistry*
  • Fimbriae Proteins / classification
  • Fimbriae, Bacterial / chemistry*
  • Humans
  • Protein Subunits / chemistry
  • Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
  • Sulfur / chemistry*

Substances

  • CofA protein, E coli
  • Escherichia coli Proteins
  • Protein Subunits
  • colonization factor antigens
  • Fimbriae Proteins
  • Sulfur

Associated data

  • PDB/3VOR