WITHDRAWN: Corrigendum to "A lectin from the Chinese bird-hunting spider binds sialic acids"

The Publisher regrets that this article is an accidental duplication of an article that has already been published, doi: 10.1016/j.carres.2010.01.003. The duplicate article has therefore been withdrawn.

A lectin from the Chinese bird-hunting spider binds sialic acids.

The affinity to sialic acid-containing oligosaccharides of the small-animal lectin SHL-I isolated from the venom of the Chinese bird-hunting spider Selenocosmia huwena is here described for the first time. By a strategic combination of NMR techniques, molecular modeling, and data mining tools it was possible to identify the crucial amino acid residues that are responsible for SHL-I's ability to bind sialic acid residues in a specific way. Furthermore, we are able to discuss the role of the functional groups of sialic acid when bound to SHL-I. Also the impact of Pro31 in its cis- or trans-form on SHL-I's ligand affinity is of special interest, since it answers the question if Trp32 is a crucial amino acid for stabilizing complexes between SHL-I and sialic acid. SHL-I can be considered as a proper model system that provides further insights into the binding mechanisms of small-animal lectins to sialic acid on a sub-molecular level.

Unique conformer selection of human growth-regulatory lectin galectin-1 for ganglioside GM1 versus bacterial toxins.

Endogenous lectins induce effects on cell growth by binding to antennae of natural glycoconjugates. These complex carbohydrates often present more than one potential lectin-binding site in a single chain. Using the growth-regulatory interaction of the pentasaccharide of ganglioside GM(1) with homodimeric galectin-1 on neuroblastoma cell surfaces as a model, we present a suitable strategy for addressing this issue. The approach combines NMR spectroscopic and computational methods and does not require isotope-labeled glycans. It involves conformational analysis of the two building blocks of the GM(1) glycan, i.e., the disaccharide Galbeta1-3GalNAc and the trisaccharide Neu5Acalpha2-3Galbeta1-4Glc. Their bound-state conformations were determined by transferred nuclear Overhauser enhancement spectroscopy. Next, measurements on the lectin-pentasaccharide complex revealed differential conformer selection regarding the sialylgalactose linkage in the tri- versus pentasaccharide (Phi and Psi value of -70 degrees and 15 degrees vs 70 degrees and 15 degrees, respectively). To proceed in the structural analysis, the characteristic experimentally detected spatial vicinity of a galactose unit and Trp68 in the galectin's binding site offered a means, exploiting saturation transfer from protein to carbohydrate protons. Indeed, we detected two signals unambiguously assigned to the terminal Gal and the GalNAc residues. Computational docking and interaction energy analyses of the entire set of ligands supported and added to experimental results. The finding that the ganglioside's carbohydrate chain is subject to differential conformer selection at the sialylgalactose linkage by galectin-1 and GM(1)-binding cholera toxin (Phi and Psi values of -172 degrees and -26 degrees, respectively) is relevant for toxin-directed drug design. In principle, our methodology can be applied in studies aimed at blocking galectin functionality in malignancy and beyond glycosciences.

Parallel cloning, expression, purification and crystallization of human proteins for structural genomics.

54 human genes were selected as test targets for parallel cloning, expression, purification and crystallization. Proteins from these genes were selected to have a molecular weight of between 14 and 50 kDa, not to have a high percentage of hydrophobic residues (i.e. more likely to be soluble) and to have no known crystal structures and were not known to be subunits of heterocomplexes. Four proteins containing transmembrane regions were selected for comparative tests. To date, 44 expression clones have been constructed with the Gateway cloning system (Invitrogen, The Netherlands). Of these, 35 clones were expressed as recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli strain BL21 (DE3)-pLysS, of which 12 were soluble and four have been purified to homogeneity. Crystallization conditions were screened for the purified proteins in 96-well plates under oil. After further refinement with the same device or by the hanging-drop method, crystals were grown, with needle, plate and prism shapes. A 2.12 A data set was collected for protein NCC27. The results provide insights into the high-throughput target selection, cloning, expression and crystallization of human genomic proteins.

Analysis of protein-carbohydrate interaction at the lower size limit of the protein part (15-mer peptide) by NMR spectroscopy, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, and molecular modeling.

Structural analysis of minimally sized lectins will offer insights into fundamentals of intermolecular recognition and potential for biomedical applications. We thus moved significantly beyond the natural limit of lectin size to determine the structure of synthetic mini-lectins in solution, their carbohydrate selectivity and the impact of ligand binding on their conformational behavior. Using three disaccharide (Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen; Gal beta 1,3GalNAc alpha 1,R)-binding pentadecapeptides without internal disulfide bridges as role models, we successfully tested a combined strategy with different techniques of NMR spectroscopy, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, and molecular modeling. In solution, the peptides invariably displayed flexibility with rather limited restrictions, shown by NMR experiments including nearly complete resonance assignments and molecular dynamics simulations. The occurrence of aromatic/nonpolar amino acids in the sequence did not lead to formation of a hydrophobic core known from microbial chitinase modules. Selectivity of disaccharide binding was independently observed by mass spectrometry and NMR analysis. Specific ligand interaction yielded characteristic NMR signal alterations but failed to reduce conformational flexibility significantly. We have thereby proven effectiveness of our approach to analyze even low-affinity interactions (not restricted to carbohydrates as ligands). It will be useful to evaluate the impact of rational manipulation of lead peptide sequences.

The structure of spider toxin huwentoxin-II with unique disulfide linkage: evidence for structural evolution.

The three-dimensional structure of huwentoxin-II (HWTX-II), an insecticidal peptide purified from the venom of spider Selenocosmia huwena with a unique disulfide bond linkage as I-III, II-V, and IV-VI, has been determined using 2D (1)H-NMR. The resulting structure of HWTX-II contains two beta-turns (C4-S7 and K24-W27) and a double-stranded antiparallel beta-sheet (W27-C29 and C34-K36). Although the C-terminal double-stranded beta-sheet cross-linked by two disulfide bonds (II-V and IV-VI in HWTX-II, II-V and III-VI in the ICK molecules) is conserved both in HWTX-II and the ICK molecules, the structure of HWTX-II is unexpected absence of the cystine knot because of its unique disulfide linkage. It suggests that HWTX-II adopts a novel scaffold different from the ICK motif that is adopted by all other spider toxin structures elucidated thus far. Furthermore, the structure of HWTX-II, which conforms to the disulfide-directed beta-hairpin (DDH) motif, not only supports the hypothesis that the ICK is a minor elaboration of the more ancestral DDH motif but also suggests that HWTX-II may have evolved from the same structural ancestor.

Sequence-specific Assignment of (1)H-NMR Resonance and Determination of the Secondary Structure of HWTX-II.

Huwentoxin-II (HWTX-II)is an insecticidal peptide purified from the venom of spider Selenocosmia huwena. The structure of this toxin in solution was investigated using 2D-NMR. The complete sequence-specific assignments of proton resonance in the (1)H-NMR spectra of HWTX-II were obtained by analyzing a series of 2D spectrum, including COSY, DQF-COSY, TOCSY and NOESY. All the backbone protons and side chain protons, except epsilonNH(2) protons of Lys residues, were identified by d(alphaN), d(alpha&dgr);, d(NN) and d(betaN) connectivities. The results provide a basis for further determination of the solution conformation of HWTX-II. Furthermore the secondary structure of HWTX-II was determined from NMR data. It contained mainly extended conformation, especially a double-stranded anti-parallel beta-sheet with Trp27--Cys29 and Cys34--Lys36 at the C terminal, and it lacked helix. These characters of the secondary structure of HWTX-II were similar to those spider toxins which structure in solution had been reported.