TCB Publications - Abstract

TCB Publications - Abstract

Nicholas Noinaj, Nicole C. Easley, Muse Oke, Naoko Mizuno, James Gumbart, Evzen Boura, Ashley N. Steere, Olga Zak, Philip Aisen, Emad Tajkhorshid, Robert W. Evans, Andrew R. Gorringe, Anne B. Mason, Alasdair C. Steven, and Susan K. Buchanan. Structural basis for iron piracy by pathogenic neisseria. Nature, 483:53-58, 2012. (PMC: PMC3292680)

NOIN2012-ET Neisseria are obligate human pathogens causing bacterial meningitis, septicaemia and gonorrhoea. Neisseria require iron for survival and can extract it directly from human transferrin for transport across the outer membrane. The transport system consists of TbpA, an integral outer membrane protein, and TbpB, a co-receptor attached to the cell surface; both proteins are potentially important vaccine and therapeutic targets. Two key questions driving Neisseria research are how human transferrin is specifically targeted, and how the bacteria liberate iron from transferrin at neutral pH. To address these questions, we solved crystal structures of the TbpA–transferrin complex and of the corresponding co- receptor TbpB. We characterized the TbpB–transferrin complex by small-angle X-ray scattering and the TbpA–TbpB–transferrin complex by electron microscopy. Our studies provide a rational basis for the specificity of TbpA for human transferrin, show how TbpA promotes iron release from transferrin, and elucidate how TbpB facilitates this process.

Download Full Text

The manuscripts available on our site are provided for your personal use only and may not be retransmitted or redistributed without written permissions from the paper's publisher and author. You may not upload any of this site's material to any public server, on-line service, network, or bulletin board without prior written permission from the publisher and author. You may not make copies for any commercial purpose. Reproduction or storage of materials retrieved from this web site is subject to the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, Title 17 U.S.C.

Download full text: Supplemental Material (28.1MB) - Supplemental PDF, Supplemental Material (19.1MB) - Supplemental Movie 1, Supplemental Material (29.2MB) - Supplemental Movie 2, Journal, Request a Copy