1gmm

Publication Abstract from PubMed

Polysaccharide-degrading enzymes are generally modular proteins that contain non-catalytic carbohydrate-binding modules (CBMs), which potentiate the activity of the catalytic module. CBMs have been grouped into sequence-based families, and three-dimensional structural data are available for half of these families. Clostridium thermocellum xylanase 11A is a modular enzyme that contains a CBM from family 6 (CBM6), for which no structural data are available. We have determined the crystal structure of this module to a resolution of 2.1 A. The protein is a beta-sandwich that contains two potential ligand-binding clefts designated cleft A and B. The CBM interacts primarily with xylan, and NMR spectroscopy coupled with site-directed mutagenesis identified cleft A, containing Trp-92, Tyr-34, and Asn-120, as the ligand-binding site. The overall fold of CBM6 is similar to proteins in CBM families 4 and 22, although surprisingly the ligand-binding site in CBM4 and CBM22 is equivalent to cleft B in CBM6. These structural data define a superfamily of CBMs, comprising CBM4, CBM6, and CBM22, and demonstrate that, although CBMs have evolved from a relatively small number of ancestors, the structural elements involved in ligand recognition have been assembled at different locations on the ancestral scaffold.

The location of the ligand-binding site of carbohydrate-binding modules that have evolved from a common sequence is not conserved.,Czjzek M, Bolam DN, Mosbah A, Allouch J, Fontes CM, Ferreira LM, Bornet O, Zamboni V, Darbon H, Smith NL, Black GW, Henrissat B, Gilbert HJ J Biol Chem. 2001 Dec 21;276(51):48580-7. Epub 2001 Oct 22. PMID:11673472^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.