The structure of the catalytic domain of Tannerella forsythia karilysin reveals it is a bacterial xenolog of animal matrix metalloproteinases
El pdf es el manuscrito de autor (PMCID: PMC3077575).-- et al. ; Metallopeptidases (MPs) are among virulence factors secreted by pathogenic bacteria at the site of infection. One such pathogen is Tannerella forsythia, a member of the microbial consortium that causes peridontitis, arguably the most prevalent infective chronic inflammatory disease known to mankind. The only reported MP secreted by T. forsythia is karilysin, a 52 kDa multidomain protein comprising a central 18 kDa catalytic domain (CD), termed Kly18, flanked by domains unrelated to any known protein. We analysed the 3D structure of Kly18 in the absence and presence of Mg2+ or Ca2+, which are required for function and stability, and found that it evidences most of the structural features characteristic of the CDs of mammalian matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Unexpectedly, a peptide was bound to the active-site cleft of Kly18 mimicking a left-behind cleavage product, which revealed that the specificity pocket accommodates bulky hydrophobic side-chains of substrates as in mammalian MMPs. In addition, Kly18 displayed a unique Mg2+ or Ca2+ binding site and two flexible segments that could play a role in substrate binding. Phylogenetic and sequence similarity studies revealed that Kly18 is evolutionarily much closer to winged-insect and mammalian MMPs than to potential bacterial counterparts found by genomic sequencing projects. Therefore, we conclude that this first structurally characterized non-mammalian MMP is a xenologue co-opted through horizontal gene transfer during the intimate coexistence between T. forsythia and humans or other animals, in a very rare case of gene shuffling from eukaryotes to prokaryotes. Subsequently, this protein would have evolved in a bacterial environment to give rise to full-length karilysin that is furnished with unique flanking domains that do not conform to the general multidomain architecture of animal MMPs. ; This study was in part supported by grants from European, Spanish, Polish and Catalan public agencies (FP7-HEALTH-F3-2009-223101 'AntiPathoGN', FP7- HEALTH-2010-261460 'Gums&Joints', BIO2008-04080-E, BIO2009-10334, CSD2006-00015, PSE-010000-2009-8, 2009SGR1036 and MNiSzW 1642/B/P01/2008/35) and by grant DE 09761 from the National Institutes of Health, USA. The Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology of the Jagiellonian University is a beneficent of the structural funds from the European Union (Grant No.: POIG.02.01.00-12-064/08 – 'Molecular biotechnology for health'). ; Peer Reviewed