Abstract

Background: The Staphylococcus aureus collagen-binding protein Cna mediates bacterial adherence to collagen. The primary sequence of Cna has a non-repetitive collagen-binding A region, followed by the repetitive B region. The B region has one to four 23 kDa repeat units (B 1–B 4), depending on the strain of origin. The affinity of the A region for collagen is independent of the B region. However, the B repeat units have been suggested to serve as a ‘stalk’ that projects the A region from the bacterial surface and thus facilitate bacterial adherence to collagen. To understand the biological role of these B-region repeats we determined their three-dimensional structure. Results: B 1 has two domains (D 1 and D 2) placed side-by-side. D 1 and D 2 have similar secondary structure and exhibit a unique fold that resembles but is the inverse of the immunoglobulin-like (IgG-like) domains. Comparison with similar immunoglobulin superfamily (IgSF) structures shows novel packing arrangements between the D 1 and D 2 domains. In the B 1B 2 crystal structure, an omission of a single glycine residue in the D 2–D 3 linker loop, compared to the D 1–D 2 and D 3–D 4 linker loops, resulted in projection of the D 3 and D 4 in a spatially new orientation. We also present a model for B 1B 2B 3B 4. Conclusions: The B region of the Cna collagen adhesin has a novel fold that is reminiscent of but is inverse in nature to the IgG fold. This B region assembly could effectively provide the needed flexibility and stability for presenting the ligand binding A region away from the bacterial cell surface.

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