Molecular design of Mycoplasma hominis Vaa adhesin |
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Authors: | Thomas Boesen Natalya U Fedosova Morten Kjeldgaard Svend Birkelund and Gunna Christiansen |
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Institution: | Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Aarhus, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. thoesen@biobase.dk |
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Abstract: | The variable adherence-associated (Vaa) adhesin of the opportunistic human pathogen Mycoplasma hominis is a surface-exposed, membrane-associated protein involved in the attachment of the bacterium to host cells. The molecular masses of recombinant 1 and 2 cassette forms of the protein determined by a light-scattering (LS) method were 23.9 kD and 36.5 kD, respectively, and corresponded to their monomeric forms. Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy of the full-length forms indicated that the Vaa protein has an alpha-helical content of approximately 80%. Sequence analysis indicates the presence of coiled-coil domains in both the conserved N-terminal and antigenic variable C-terminal part of the Vaa adhesin. Experimental results obtained with recombinant proteins corresponding to the N- or C-terminal parts of the shortest one-cassette form of the protein were consistent with the hypothesis of two distinct coiled-coil regions. The one-cassette Vaa monomer appears to be an elongated protein with a axial shape ratio of 1:10. Analysis of a two-cassette Vaa type reveals a similar axial shape ratio. The results are interpreted in terms of the topological organization of the Vaa protein indicating the localization of the adherence-mediating structure. |
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Keywords: | Coiled coil bacterial surface protein Mycoplasma hominis Vaa adhesin |
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