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Extending the aerolysin family: from bacteria to vertebrates.

ABSTRACT: A number of bacterial virulence factors have been observed to adopt structures similar to that of aerolysin, the principal toxin of Aeromonas species. However, a comprehensive description of architecture and structure of the aerolysin-like superfamily has not been determined. In this study, we define a more compact aerolysin-like domain--or aerolysin fold--and show that this domain is far more widely spread than anticipated since it can be found throughout kingdoms. The aerolysin-fold could be found in very diverse domain and functional contexts, although a toxic function could often be assigned. Due to this diversity, the borders of the superfamily could not be set on a sequence level. As a border-defining member, we therefore chose pXO2-60--a protein from the pathogenic pXO2 plasmid of Bacillus anthracis. This fascinating protein, which harbors a unique ubiquitin-like fold domain at the C-terminus of the aerolysin-domain, nicely illustrates the diversity of the superfamily. Its putative role in the virulence of B. anthracis and its three dimensional model are discussed.

SUBMITTER: Szczesny P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3110756 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Extending the aerolysin family: from bacteria to vertebrates.

Szczesny Pawel P Iacovache Ioan I Muszewska Anna A Ginalski Krzysztof K van der Goot F Gisou FG Grynberg Marcin M

PloS one 20110608 6

A number of bacterial virulence factors have been observed to adopt structures similar to that of aerolysin, the principal toxin of Aeromonas species. However, a comprehensive description of architecture and structure of the aerolysin-like superfamily has not been determined. In this study, we define a more compact aerolysin-like domain--or aerolysin fold--and show that this domain is far more widely spread than anticipated since it can be found throughout kingdoms. The aerolysin-fold could be f ...[more]

PMID: 21687664

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Dataset Information

Extending the aerolysin family: from bacteria to vertebrates.

Publications

Extending the aerolysin family: from bacteria to vertebrates.

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