Structural and functional insights into a novel two-component endolysin encoded by a single gene in Enterococcus faecalis phage

PLoS Pathog. 2020 Mar 16;16(3):e1008394. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008394. eCollection 2020 Mar.

Abstract

Using bacteriophage-derived endolysins as an alternative strategy for fighting drug-resistant bacteria has recently been garnering renewed interest. However, their application is still hindered by their narrow spectra of activity. In our previous work, we demonstrated that the endolysin LysIME-EF1 possesses efficient bactericidal activity against multiple strains of Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis). Herein, we observed an 8 kDa fragment and hypothesized that it contributes to LysIME-EF1 lytic activity. To examine our hypothesis, we determined the structure of LysIME-EF1 at 1.75 Å resolution. LysIME-EF1 exhibits a unique architecture in which one full-length LysIME-EF1 forms a tetramer with three additional C-terminal cell-wall binding domains (CBDs) that correspond to the abovementioned 8 kDa fragment. Furthermore, we identified an internal ribosomal binding site (RBS) and alternative start codon within LysIME-EF1 gene, which are demonstrated to be responsible for the translation of the truncated CBD. To elucidate the molecular mechanism for the lytic activity of LysIME-EF1, we combined mutagenesis, lytic activity assays and in vivo animal infection experiments. The results confirmed that the additional LysIME-EF1 CBDs are important for LysIME-EF1 architecture and its lytic activity. To our knowledge, this is the first determined structure of multimeric endolysin encoded by a single gene in E. faecalis phages. As such, it may provide valuable insights into designing potent endolysins against the opportunistic pathogen E. faecalis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bacteriophages / chemistry*
  • Bacteriophages / genetics
  • Crystallography, X-Ray
  • Endopeptidases / chemistry*
  • Endopeptidases / genetics
  • Enterococcus faecalis / chemistry
  • Enterococcus faecalis / virology*
  • Genes, Viral*
  • Protein Domains
  • Viral Proteins / chemistry*
  • Viral Proteins / genetics

Substances

  • Viral Proteins
  • Endopeptidases
  • endolysin

Grants and funding

This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China grants (31770948, and 31570875 to S. O.; 31800159 to X. Z., 81572045 to Z. M.), The high-level personnel introduction grant of Fujian Normal University (Z0210509) to S. O., Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (2019J05065) to X. Z.. We thank the support of the scientific research innovation program “Xiyuanjiang River Scholarship” of College of Life Sciences, Fujian Normal University to X. Z.. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.