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8B3W

Structure of metacyclic VSG (mVSG) 1954 from Trypanosoma brucei

Summary for 8B3W
Entry DOI10.2210/pdb8b3w/pdb
Related8B3B
DescriptorVariant surface glycoprotein 1954, 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-beta-D-glucopyranose-(1-4)-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-beta-D-glucopyranose, BROMIDE ION, ... (4 entities in total)
Functional Keywordsvsg, trypanosome, trypanosoma, metacyclic, membrane protein
Biological sourceTrypanosoma brucei brucei
Total number of polymer chains1
Total formula weight38271.80
Authors
Chandra, M.,Stebbins, C.E. (deposition date: 2022-09-17, release date: 2023-01-25, Last modification date: 2024-11-13)
Primary citationChandra, M.,Dakovic, S.,Foti, K.,Zeelen, J.P.,van Straaten, M.,Aresta-Branco, F.,Tihon, E.,Lubbehusen, N.,Ruppert, T.,Glover, L.,Papavasiliou, F.N.,Stebbins, C.E.
Structural similarities between the metacyclic and bloodstream form variant surface glycoproteins of the African trypanosome.
Plos Negl Trop Dis, 17:e0011093-e0011093, 2023
Cited by
PubMed Abstract: During infection of mammalian hosts, African trypanosomes thwart immunity using antigenic variation of the dense Variant Surface Glycoprotein (VSG) coat, accessing a large repertoire of several thousand genes and pseudogenes, and switching to antigenically distinct copies. The parasite is transferred to mammalian hosts by the tsetse fly. In the salivary glands of the fly, the pathogen adopts the metacyclic form and expresses a limited repertoire of VSG genes specific to that developmental stage. It has remained unknown whether the metacyclic VSGs possess distinct properties associated with this particular and discrete phase of the parasite life cycle. We present here three novel metacyclic form VSG N-terminal domain crystal structures (mVSG397, mVSG531, and mVSG1954) and show that they mirror closely in architecture, oligomerization, and surface diversity the known classes of bloodstream form VSGs. These data suggest that the mVSGs are unlikely to be a specialized subclass of VSG proteins, and thus could be poor candidates as the major components of prophylactic vaccines against trypanosomiasis.
PubMed: 36780870
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0011093
PDB entries with the same primary citation
Experimental method
X-RAY DIFFRACTION (1.681 Å)
Structure validation

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