Department of Biotechnology
inStem (Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine)

Substrate-bound outward-open structure of a Na-coupled sialic acid symporter reveals a new Na site.

Publication Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

May 1, 2018

Journal

Nature communications

Volume/Issue

9/1

ISSN

2041-1723

Many pathogenic bacteria utilise sialic acids as an energy source or use them as an external coating to evade immune detection. As such, bacteria that colonise sialylated environments deploy specific transporters to mediate import of scavenged sialic acids. Here, we report a substrate-bound 1.95 Å resolution structure and subsequent characterisation of SiaT, a sialic acid transporter from Proteus mirabilis. SiaT is a secondary active transporter of the sodium solute symporter (SSS) family, which use Na gradients to drive the uptake of extracellular substrates. SiaT adopts the LeuT-fold and is in an outward-open conformation in complex with the sialic acid N-acetylneuraminic acid and two Na ions. One Na binds to the conserved Na2 site, while the second Na binds to a new position, termed Na3, which is conserved in many SSS family members. Functional and molecular dynamics studies validate the substrate-binding site and demonstrate that both Na sites regulate N-acetylneuraminic acid transport.

Alternate Journal

Nat Commun

PubMed ID

29717135

PubMed Central ID

PMC5931594

Authors

Weixiao Y Wahlgren
Elin Dunevall
Rachel A North
Aviv Paz
Mariafrancesca Scalise
Paola Bisignano
Johan Bengtsson-Palme
Parveen Goyal
Elin Claesson
Rhawnie Caing-Carlsson
Rebecka Andersson
Konstantinos Beis
Ulf J Nilsson
Anne Farewell
Lorena Pochini
Cesare Indiveri
Michael Grabe
Renwick C J Dobson
Jeff Abramson
S Ramaswamy
Rosmarie Friemann

Keywords

Substrate Specificity
N-Acetylneuraminic Acid
Protein Folding
Organic Anion Transporters
Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
Sodium
Symporters
Amino Acid Sequence