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Lookup NU author(s): He Fang Xie, Dr David Bolam, Emeritus Professor Harry Gilbert
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The interactions of proteins with polysaccharides play a key role in the microbial hydrolysis of cellulose and xylan, the most abundant organic molecules in the biosphere, and are thus pivotal to the recycling of photosynthetically fixed carbon. Enzymes that attack these recalcitrant polymers have a modular structure comprising catalytic modules and non-catalytic carhohydrate-binding modules (CBMs). The largest prokaryotic CBM family, CBM2, contains members that bind cellulose (CBM2a) and xylan (CBM2b), respectively. A possible explanation for the different ligand specificity of CBM2b is that one of the surface tryptophans involved in the protein-carbohydrate interaction is rotated by 90° compared with its position in CBM2a (thus matching the structure of the binding site to the helical secondary structure of xylan), which may be promoted by a single amino acid difference between the two families. Here we show that by mutation of this single residue (Arg-262→Gly), a CBM2b xylan-binding module completely loses its affinity for xylan and becomes a cellulose-binding module. The structural effect of the mutation has been revealed using NMR spectroscopy, which confirms that Trp-259 rotates 90° to lie flat against the protein surface. Except for this one residue, the mutation only results in minor changes to the structure. The mutated protein interacts with cellulose using the same residues that the wild-type CBM2b uses to interact with xylan, suggesting that the recognition is of the secondary structure of the polysaccharide rather than any specific recognition of the absence or presence of functional groups.
Author(s): Simpson P, Xie H, Bolam DN, Gilbert HJ, Williamson M
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Biological Chemistry
Year: 2000
Volume: 275
Issue: 52
Pages: 41137-41142
Print publication date: 29/12/2000
ISSN (print): 0021-9258
ISSN (electronic): 1083-351X
Publisher: American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1074/jbc.M006948200
DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M006948200
PubMed id: 10973978
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