PMID: 9168153Apr 26, 1997Paper

Staphylococcal alpha-toxin: the role of the N-terminus in formation of the heptameric pore -- a fluorescence study

Biochimica Et Biophysica Acta
A ValevaM Palmer

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus alpha-toxin forms heptameric pores on eukaryotic cell membranes. Assembly of the heptamer precedes formation of the transmembrane pore. The latter event depends on a conformational change that drives a centrally located stretch of 15 amino acid residues into the lipid bilayer. A second region of the molecule that has been implicated in the pre-pore to pore transition is the far N-terminus. Here, we used fluorescently labeled single cysteine replacement mutants to analyze the functional role of the far N-terminus of alpha-toxin. Pyrene attached to mutants S3C, I5C and 17C forms excimers within the toxin pore complex. This indicates that the distance of adjacent N-termini is less than 10-12 Angstrom. By labeling with the polarity-sensitive fluorophore acrylodan, pore formation is shown to cause distinct environmental changes in the N-terminus. Removal of membrane lipids from the labeled heptamers has no effect upon the acrylodan spectrum, indicating lack of direct contact of the N-terminus with the target membrane. The environmental alterations to the N-terminus are thus due to altered protein structure only. Both acrylodan emission shifts and pyrene excimers were shown to be absent in toxin heptamers that w...Continue Reading

References

Nov 1, 1978·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·S Bhakdi, J Tranum-Jensen
Sep 1, 1981·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·S BhakdiJ Tranum-Jensen

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Citations

Feb 16, 2010·The Journal of Membrane Biology·Young-Keun KwakBeatrix Vécsey-Semjén
Oct 13, 2012·Chemical Reviews·Ekaterina M Nestorovich, Sergey M Bezrukov
Oct 23, 1997·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·A ValevaS Bhakdi
Jul 31, 2013·Toxins·Bryan J Berube, Juliane Bubeck Wardenburg
May 15, 2007·Journal of Biomedicine & Biotechnology·Olivier JoubertGilles Prévost
Dec 2, 2009·Biophysical Journal·Luciana R TeixeiraOleg V Krasilnikov
Jan 1, 2003·Biochimica Et Biophysica Acta·Michelle Montoya, Eric Gouaux
Apr 18, 2013·Biochimica Et Biophysica Acta·M SchwieringN Hellmann
May 23, 2014·Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews : MMBR·Francis Alonzo, Victor J Torres
Jan 20, 2012·Molecular BioSystems·Francesco BonardiArnold J M Driessen
Mar 27, 1999·The Journal of Biological Chemistry·N SanghaM V Krishnasastry
Apr 30, 2003·Protein Science : a Publication of the Protein Society·Toshimitsu Kawate, Eric Gouaux
May 3, 2018·Nucleic Acids Research·Lukáš PravdaMichal Otyepka
Mar 16, 2019·Microbiology Spectrum·Kayan Tam, Victor J Torres

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