Functional reprogramming of Candida glabrata epithelial adhesins: the role of conserved and variable structural motifs in ligand binding.

ABSTRACT: For host-cell interaction, the human fungal pathogen Candida glabrata harbors a large family of more than 20 cell wall-attached epithelial adhesins (Epas). Epa family members are lectins with binding pockets containing several conserved and variable structural hot spots, which were implicated in mediating functional diversity. In this study, we have performed an elaborate structure-based mutational analysis of numerous Epa paralogs to generally determine the role of diverse structural hot spots in conferring host cell binding and ligand binding specificity. Our study reveals that several conserved structural motifs contribute to efficient host cell binding. Moreover, our directed motif exchange experiments reveal that the variable loop CBL2 is key for programming ligand binding spec

SUBMITTER: Hoffmann D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7458821 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature