Dataset Information

Conformational plasticity of the essential membrane-associated mannosyltransferase PimA from mycobacteria.

ABSTRACT: Phosphatidyl-myo-inositol mannosyltransferase A (PimA) is an essential glycosyltransferase (GT) that initiates the biosynthetic pathway of phosphatidyl-myo-inositol mannosides, lipomannan, and lipoarabinomannan, which are key glycolipids/lipoglycans of the mycobacterial cell envelope. PimA belongs to a large family of peripheral membrane-associated GTs for which the understanding of the molecular mechanism and conformational changes that govern substrate/membrane recognition and catalysis remains a major challenge. Here we used single molecule force spectroscopy techniques to study the mechanical and conformational properties of PimA. In our studies, we engineered a polyprotein containing PimA flanked by four copies of the well characterized I27 protein, which provides an unambiguous mechanical fingerprint. We found that PimA exhibits weak mechanical stability albeit displaying ?-sheet topology expected to unfold at much higher forces. Notably, PimA unfolds following heterogeneous multiple step mechanical unfolding pathways at low force akin to molten globule states. Interestingly, the ab initio low resolution envelopes obtained from small angle x-ray scattering of the unliganded PimA and the PimA·GDP complexed forms clearly demonstrate that not only the "open" and "closed" conformations of the GT-B enzyme are largely present in solution, but in addition, PimA experiences remarkable flexibility that undoubtedly corresponds to the N-terminal "Rossmann fold" domain, which has been proved to participate in protein-membrane interactions. Based on these results and on our previous experimental data, we propose a model wherein the conformational transitions are important for the mannosyltransferase to interact with the donor and acceptor substrates/membrane.

SUBMITTER: Giganti D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3795279 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Conformational plasticity of the essential membrane-associated mannosyltransferase PimA from mycobacteria.

Giganti David D Alegre-Cebollada Jorge J Urresti Saioa S Albesa-Jové David D Rodrigo-Unzueta Ane A Comino Natalia N Kachala Michael M López-Fernández Sonia S Svergun Dmitri I DI Fernández Julio M JM Guerin Marcelo E ME

The Journal of biological chemistry 20130820 41

Phosphatidyl-myo-inositol mannosyltransferase A (PimA) is an essential glycosyltransferase (GT) that initiates the biosynthetic pathway of phosphatidyl-myo-inositol mannosides, lipomannan, and lipoarabinomannan, which are key glycolipids/lipoglycans of the mycobacterial cell envelope. PimA belongs to a large family of peripheral membrane-associated GTs for which the understanding of the molecular mechanism and conformational changes that govern substrate/membrane recognition and catalysis remain ...[more]

PMID: 23963451

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Dataset Information

Conformational plasticity of the essential membrane-associated mannosyltransferase PimA from mycobacteria.

Publications

Conformational plasticity of the essential membrane-associated mannosyltransferase PimA from mycobacteria.

Similar Datasets

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