Molecular design of Mycoplasma hominis Vaa adhesin

The variable adherence-associated (Vaa) adhesin of the opportunistic human pathogen Mycoplasma hominis is a surface-exposed, membrane-associated prote in involved in the attachment of the bacterium to host cells. The molecular masses of recombinant 1 and 2 cassette forms of the protein determined by a light-scattering (LS) method were 23.9 kD and 36.5 kD, respectively, and corresponded to their monomeric forms. Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy of the full-length forms indicated that the Vaa protein has an alpha -heli cal content of similar to 80%. Sequence analysis indicates the presence of coiled-coil domains in both the conserved N-terminal and antigenic variable C-terminal part of the Vaa adhesin. Experimental results obtained with rec ombinant proteins corresponding to the N- or C-terminal parts of the shorte st one-cassette form of the protein were consistent with the hypothesis of two distinct coiled-coil regions. The one-cassette Vaa monomer appears to b e an elongated protein with a axial shape ratio of 1:10. Analysis of a two- cassette Vaa type reveals a similar axial shape ratio. The results are inte rpreted in terms of the topological organization of the Vaa protein indicat ing the localization of the adherence-mediating structure.