Three-dimensional structures of Lipoproteins from Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus

Sergio G. Bartual, Martín Alcorlo, Siseth Martínez-Caballero, Rafael Molina, Juan A. Hermoso (Lead / Corresponding author)

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Bacterial lipoproteins (Lpp) compose a large family of surface-exposed proteins that are involved in diverse, but critical, cellular functions spanning from fitness to virulence. All of them present a common signature, a sequence motif, known as LipoBox, containing an invariant Cys residue that allows the protein to be covalently bound to the membrane through a thioether linkage. Despite the abundance and relevance of Lpp, there is a scarcity of structural and functional information for this family of proteins. In this review, the updated structural and functional data for Lpp from two Gram-positive pathogenic model organisms, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae is presented. The available structural information offers a glimpse over the Lpp functional mechanisms. Their relevance in bacterial fitness, and also in virulence and host-pathogen interactions, reveals lipoproteins as very attractive targets for designing of novel antimicrobials, and interesting candidates as novel vaccine antigens.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)692-704
Number of pages13
JournalInternational Journal of Medical Microbiology
Volume308
Issue number6
Early online date27 Oct 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2018

Keywords

  • Lipoproteins
  • Protein structure
  • Staphylococcus aureus
  • Streptococcus pneumoniae
  • Virulence

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Microbiology
  • Microbiology (medical)
  • Infectious Diseases

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