Against the odds? De novo structure determination of a pilin with two cysteine residues by sulfur SAD.

Exploiting the anomalous signal of the intrinsic S atoms to phase a protein structure is advantageous, as ideally only a single well diffracting native crystal is required. However, sulfur is a weak anomalous scatterer at the typical wavelengths used for X-ray diffraction experiments, and therefore sulfur SAD data sets need to be recorded with a high multiplicity. In this study, the structure of a small pilin protein was determined by sulfur SAD despite several obstacles such as a low anomalous signal (a theoretical Bijvoet ratio of 0.9% at a wavelength of 1.8 Å), radiation damage-induced reduction of the cysteines and a multiplicity of only 5.5. The anomalous signal was improved by merging three data sets from different volumes of a single crystal, yielding a multiplicity of 17.5, and a sodium ion was added to the substructure of anomalous scatterers. In general, all data sets were balanced around the threshold values for a successful phasing strategy. In addition, a collection of statistics on structures from the PDB that were solved by sulfur SAD are presented and compared with the data. Looking at the quality indicator R(anom)/R(p.i.m.), an inconsistency in the documentation of the anomalous R factor is noted and reported.

High-resolution structure of a type IV pilin from the metal-reducing bacterium Shewanella oneidensis.

BACKGROUND: Type IV pili are widely expressed among Gram-negative bacteria, where they are involved in biofilm formation, serve in the transfer of DNA, motility and in the bacterial attachment to various surfaces. Type IV pili in Shewanella oneidensis are also supposed to play an important role in extracellular electron transfer by the attachment to sediments containing electron acceptors and potentially forming conductive nanowires. RESULTS: The potential nanowire type IV pilin PilBac1 from S. oneidensis was characterized by a combination of complementary structural methods and the atomic structure was determined at a resolution of 1.67 Å by X-ray crystallography. PilBac1 consists of one long N-terminal α-helix packed against four antiparallel ß-strands, thus revealing the core fold of type IV pilins. In the crystal, PilBac1 forms a parallel dimer with a sodium ion bound to one of the monomers. Interestingly, our PilBac1 crystal structure reveals two unusual features compared to other type IVa pilins: an unusual position of the disulfide bridge and a straight α-helical section, which usually exhibits a pronounced kink. This straight helix leads to a distinct packing in a filament model of PilBac1 based on an EM model of a Neisseria pilus. CONCLUSIONS: In this study we have described the first structure of a pilin from Shewanella oneidensis. The structure possesses features of the common type IV pilin core, but also exhibits significant variations in the α-helical part and the D-region.

Probing determinants of cyclopiazonic acid sensitivity of bacterial Ca2+-ATPases.

Cyclopiazonic acid (CPA) is a specific and potent inhibitor of the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+)-ATPase 1a (SERCA1a). Despite high sequence similarity to SERCA1a, Listeria monocytogenes Ca(2+)-ATPase 1 (LMCA1) is not inhibited by CPA. To test whether a CPA binding site could be created while maintaining the functionality of the ATPase we targeted four amino acid positions in LMCA1 for mutational studies based on a multiple sequence alignment of SERCA-like Ca(2+)-ATPases and structural analysis of the CPA site. The identification of CPA-sensitive gain-of-function mutants pinpointed key determinants of the CPA binding site. The importance of these determinants was further underscored by the characterization of the CPA sensitivity of two additional bacterial Ca(2+)-ATPases from Lactococcus lactis and Bacillus cereus. The CPA sensitivity was predicted from their sequence compared with the LMCA1 results, and this was experimentally confirmed. Interestingly, a cluster of Lactococcus bacteria applied in the production of fermented cheese display Ca(2+)-ATPases that are predictably CPA insensitive and may originate from their coexistence with CPA-producing Penicillum and Aspergillus fungi in the cheese. The differences between bacterial and mammalian binding pockets encompassing the CPA site suggest that CPA derivatives that are specific for bacteria or other pathogens can be developed.