Publication Abstract from PubMed
Aerolysin is chiefly responsible for the pathogenicity of Aeromonas hydrophila, a bacterium associated with diarrhoeal diseases and deep wound infections. Like many other microbial toxins, the protein changes in a multistep process from a completely water-soluble form to produce a transmembrane channel that destroys sensitive cells by breaking their permeability barriers. Here we describe the structure of proaerolysin determined by X-ray crystallography at 2.8 A resolution. The protoxin (M(r) 52,000) adopts a novel protein fold. Images of an aerolysin oligomer derived from electron microscopy have assisted in constructing a model of the membrane channel and have led to the proposal of a scheme to account for insertion of the protein into lipid bilayers to form ion channels.
Structure of the Aeromonas toxin proaerolysin in its water-soluble and membrane-channel states.,Parker MW, Buckley JT, Postma JP, Tucker AD, Leonard K, Pattus F, Tsernoglou D Nature. 1994 Jan 20;367(6460):292-5. PMID:7510043[1]
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
