The turn of the screw: variations of the abundant beta-solenoid motif in passenger domains of Type V secretory proteins

J Struct Biol. 2006 Aug;155(2):306-15. doi: 10.1016/j.jsb.2006.01.015. Epub 2006 May 4.

Abstract

Many virulence factors of gram-negative bacteria are secreted by the Type V secretion system via the autotransporter (AT) and two-partner secretion (TPS) pathways. AT proteins effect their own secretion. They comprise three domains: the amino-terminal leader sequence; the secreted passenger domain; and the translocator domain that forms the secretory channel. In the TPS pathway, the passenger and translocator domains are translated as separate proteins. In a previous publication, we proposed a beta-helical structure for the TPS passenger domain of the filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) of Bordetella pertussis which contains two tracts, R1 and R2, of 19-residue sequence repeats and built molecular models for the R1 and R2 beta-helices. Here, we compare the structure predicted for R1 with the recently determined crystal structure of a fragment containing three R1 repeats and find close agreement, with an RMSD of 1.1A. In the interim, the number of known AT and TPS protein sequences has increased to >1000. To investigate the incidence of beta-helical structures among them, we carried out a sequence-based analysis and conclude that, despite wide diversity in the sizes and sequences of passenger domains, most of them contain beta-solenoids that we classify into thirteen types based on distinctive properties of their beta-coils (repeat length, numbers and lengths of beta-strands and turns, cross-sectional shape, presence of specific residues in certain positions) summarized in a 2D coil template. Some coil types are typical for conventional AT proteins, others, for TPS or trimeric AT proteins. Some beta-solenoids consist of stacked subdomains with coils of different types. To illustrate model-building from a coil template, we modeled a type-T4 beta-solenoid for TibA of Escherichia coli which is predicted to have two conserved polar residues, Thr and Gln, in interior positions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural

MeSH terms

  • Adhesins, Bacterial / chemistry*
  • Adhesins, Bacterial / genetics
  • Adhesins, Bacterial / metabolism
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Computational Biology / methods
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Protein Structure, Secondary*
  • Protein Structure, Tertiary
  • Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
  • Virulence Factors, Bordetella / chemistry*
  • Virulence Factors, Bordetella / genetics
  • Virulence Factors, Bordetella / metabolism

Substances

  • Adhesins, Bacterial
  • Virulence Factors, Bordetella
  • filamentous hemagglutinin adhesin, Bordetella pertussis