Abstract

The human gut microbiota plays a central role not only in regulating the metabolism of nutrients but also promoting immune homeostasis, immune responses and protection against pathogen colonization. The genome of the Gram-negative symbiont Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, a dominant member of the human intestinal microbiota, encodes polysaccharide utilization loci PULs, the apparatus required to orchestrate the degradation of a specific glycan. EndoBT-3987 is a key endo-β-N-acetylglucosaminidase (ENGase) that initiates the degradation/processing of mammalian high-mannose-type (HM-type) N-glycans in the intestine. Here, we provide structural snapshots of EndoBT-3987, including the unliganded form, the EndoBT-3987-Man9GlcNAc2Asn substrate complex, and two EndoBT-3987-Man9GlcNAc and EndoBT-3987-Man5GlcNAc product complexes. In combination with alanine scanning mutagenesis and activity measurements we unveil the molecular mechanism of HM-type recognition and specificity for EndoBT-3987 and an important group of the GH18 ENGases, including EndoH, an enzyme extensively used in biotechnology, and for which the mechanism of substrate recognition was largely unknown.

Highlights

  • The human gut microbiota plays a central role in regulating the metabolism of nutrients and promoting immune homeostasis, immune responses and protection against pathogen colonization

  • This structure represents an example of an enzyme-substrate complex in the glycoside hydrolase family 18 (GH18) ENGase family

  • To further advance the understanding of EndoBT-3987 N-glycan specificity, we performed a structural analysis in the context of the GH18 family of ENGases

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Summary

Introduction

The human gut microbiota plays a central role in regulating the metabolism of nutrients and promoting immune homeostasis, immune responses and protection against pathogen colonization. The genome of the Gram-negative symbiont Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, a dominant member of the human intestinal microbiota, encodes polysaccharide utilization loci PULs, the apparatus required to orchestrate the degradation of a specific glycan. The genomes of Bacteroidetes contain polysaccharide utilization loci (PULs)[12] that encode the apparatus required to utilize multi-subunit carbohydrates, with each PUL orchestrating the degradation of a specific glycan. The Sus-like systems are widespread among the Bacteroidetes members accounting, in many species, for up to one-fifth of their genomes to encode Suslike pathways, as in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron[14,15,16]. B. thetaiotaomicron encodes a high-mannose mammalian N-glycan (HMNG) depolymerizing system, comprised by four enzymes and two surface glycan binding proteins[7]. According to the currently accepted model, the released HM is held on the surface of B. thetaiotaomicron through the mannose-binding protein BT3986, while

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