THE PILI OF PSEUDOMONAS-AERUGINOSA STRAINS PAK AND PAO BIND SPECIFICALLY TO THE CARBOHYDRATE SEQUENCE BETA-GALNAC(1-4)BETA-GAL FOUND IN GLYCOSPHINGOLIPIDS ASIALO-GM(1) AND ASIALO-GM(2)
Hb. Sheth et al., THE PILI OF PSEUDOMONAS-AERUGINOSA STRAINS PAK AND PAO BIND SPECIFICALLY TO THE CARBOHYDRATE SEQUENCE BETA-GALNAC(1-4)BETA-GAL FOUND IN GLYCOSPHINGOLIPIDS ASIALO-GM(1) AND ASIALO-GM(2), Molecular microbiology, 11(4), 1994, pp. 715-723
Pseudomonas aeruginosa employs pill to mediate adherence to epithelial
cell surfaces. The pilus adhesin of P. aeruginosa strains PAK and PAO
has been shown to bind to the glycolipid asialo-GM(1) (Lee ef at, 199
4 - accompanying article). PAK and PAO pill were examined for their ab
ilities to bind to the synthetic beta GalNAc(1-4)beta Gal (a minimal s
tructural carbohydrate receptor sequence of asialo-GM(1) and asialo-GM
(2) proposed by Krivan at al., 1988a) using solid-phase binding assays
. Both pill specifically bound to beta GalNAc(1-4)beta Gal. The bindin
g of beta GalNAc(1-4)beta Gal-Biotin to the immobilized PAK and PAO pi
ll was inhibited by corresponding free pill. The receptor binding doma
in of the PAK pilus resides in the C-terminal disulphide-looped region
(residues 128-144) of the pilin structural subunit (Irvin at al., 198
9). Biotinylated synthetic-peptides corresponding the C-terminal resid
ues 128-144 of P. aeruginosa PAK and PAO pilin molecules were shown to
bind to the beta GalNAc(1-4)beta Gal-(bovine serum albumin (BSA)). Th
e binding of biotinylated peptides to beta GalNAc(1-4)beta Gal-BSA was
inhibited by PAK pill, Ac-KCTSDQDEQFIPKGCSK-OH (AcPAK(128-144)(ox)-OH
) and Ac-ACKSTQDPMFTPKGCDN-OH (AcPAO(128-144)(ox)-OH) peptides. (In th
ese peptides Ac denotes Na-acetylation of the N-terminus, -OH means a
peptide with a free alpha-carboxyl group at the C-terminus and the 'ox
' denotes the oxidation of the sulphhydryl groups of Cys-129 and Cys-1
42.) Both acetylated peptides were also able to inhibit the binding of
beta GalNAc(1-4)beta Gal-biotin to the corresponding BSA-Peptide(128-
144)(ox)-OH conjugates. The beta GlcNAc(1-3)beta Gal(1-4)beta Glc-biot
in conjugate was unable to specifically bind to either immobilized PAK
and PAO pili or the respective C-terminal peptides. The data above de
monstrated that the P. aeruginosa pill recognize asialo-GM(1) receptor
analogue and that beta GalNAc(1-4)beta Gal disaccharide is sufficient
for binding. Furthermore, the binding to beta GalNAc(1-4)beta Gal was
mediated by residues 128-144 of the pilin subunit.