8F5N

Identification of an Immunodominant region on a Group A Streptococcus T-antigen Reveals Temperature-Dependent Motion in Pili

Summary for 8F5N

• Entry DOI: 10.2210/pdb8f5n/pdb
• Descriptor: T18.1 Major pilin backbone protein T-antigen, Mouse-Human Fab light chain, Mouse-Human Fab heavy chain, ... (5 entities in total)
• Functional Keywords: streptococcus t-antigen major pilin backbone protein, structural protein
• Biological source: Streptococcus pyogenes; More
• Total number of polymer chains: 3
• Total formula weight: 78229.09

Authors

Raynes, J.M.,Young, P.G.,Moreland, N.J. (deposition date: 2022-11-14, release date: 2023-03-08, Last modification date: 2023-10-25)

Primary citation

Raynes, J.M.,Young, P.G.,Lorenz, N.,Loh, J.M.S.,McGregor, R.,Baker, E.N.,Proft, T.,Moreland, N.J.
Identification of an immunodominant region on a group A Streptococcus T-antigen reveals temperature-dependent motion in pili.
Virulence, 14:2180228-2180228, 2023

PubMed Abstract: Group A (GAS) is a globally important pathogen causing a broad range of human diseases. GAS pili are elongated proteins with a backbone comprised repeating T-antigen subunits, which extend from the cell surface and have important roles in adhesion and establishing infection. No GAS vaccines are currently available, but T-antigen-based candidates are in pre-clinical development. This study investigated antibody-T-antigen interactions to gain molecular insight into functional antibody responses to GAS pili. Large, chimeric mouse/human Fab-phage libraries generated from mice vaccinated with the complete T18.1 pilus were screened against recombinant T18.1, a representative two-domain T-antigen. Of the two Fab identified for further characterization, one (designated E3) was cross-reactive and also recognized T3.2 and T13, while the other (H3) was type-specific reacting with only T18.1/T18.2 within a T-antigen panel representative of the major GAS T-types. The epitopes for the two Fab, determined by x-ray crystallography and peptide tiling, overlapped and mapped to the N-terminal region of the T18.1 N-domain. This region is predicted to be buried in the polymerized pilus by the C-domain of the next T-antigen subunit. However, flow cytometry and opsonophagocytic assays showed that these epitopes were accessible in the polymerized pilus at 37°C, though not at lower temperature. This suggests that there is motion within the pilus at physiological temperature, with structural analysis of a covalently linked T18.1 dimer indicating "knee-joint" like bending occurs between T-antigen subunits to expose this immunodominant region. This temperature dependent, mechanistic flexing provides new insight into how antibodies interact with T-antigens during infection.

PubMed: 36809931
DOI: 10.1080/21505594.2023.2180228

Experimental method

X-RAY DIFFRACTION (1.9 Å)