Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Kagawa TF
PROVIDER: S-EPMC15784 | biostudies-literature | 2000 Feb
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Kagawa T F TF Cooney J C JC Baker H M HM McSweeney S S Liu M M Gubba S S Musser J M JM Baker E N EN
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20000201 5
Pathogenic bacteria secrete protein toxins that weaken or disable their host, and thereby act as virulence factors. We have determined the crystal structure of streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin B (SpeB), a cysteine protease that is a major virulence factor of the human pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes and participates in invasive disease episodes, including necrotizing fasciitis. The structure, determined for the 40-kDa precursor form of SpeB at 1.6-A resolution, reveals that the protein is a dist ...[more]