Crystal structures of the components of the Staphylococcus aureus leukotoxin ED

S. Nocadello, G. Minasov, L. Shuvalova, I. Dubrovska, E. Sabini, F. Bagnoli, G. Grandi, W. F. Anderson*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

Staphylococcal leukotoxins are a family of β-barrel, bicomponent, pore-forming toxins with membrane-damaging functions. These bacterial exotoxins share sequence and structural homology and target several host-cell types. Leukotoxin ED (LukED) is one of these bicomponent pore-forming toxins that Staphylococcus aureus produces in order to suppress the ability of the host to contain the infection. The recent delineation of the important role that LukED plays in S. aureus pathogenesis and the identification of its protein receptors, combined with its presence in S. aureus methicillin-resistant epidemic strains, establish this leukocidin as a possible target for the development of novel therapeutics. Here, the crystal structures of the water-soluble LukE and LukD components of LukED have been determined. The two structures illustrate the tertiary-structural variability with respect to the other leukotoxins while retaining the conservation of the residues involved in the interaction of the protomers in the bipartite leukotoxin in the pore complex.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)113-120
Number of pages8
JournalActa Crystallographica Section D: Structural Biology
Volume72
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2016

Funding

This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services under Contracts No. HHSN272200700058C and HHSN272201200026C. X-ray data collection for crystal structures was performed at the LS-CAT beamlines 21-ID-G (PDB entry 3roh) and 21-ID-F (PDB entry 4q7g) at the Advanced Photon Source Science User Facility operated for the US Department of Energy (DOE) supported by the US DOE under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

Keywords

  • Leukotoxin
  • LukD
  • LukE
  • Pore-forming toxins
  • Staphylococcus aureus

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Structural Biology

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