Structural basis for chitin acquisition by marine Vibrio species

Anuwat Aunkham, Michael Zahn, Anusha Kesireddy, Karunakar Reddy Pothula, Albert Schulte, Arnaud Baslé, Ulrich Kleinekathöfer, Wipa Suginta () and Bert Berg ()
Additional contact information
Anuwat Aunkham: Suranaree University of Technology
Michael Zahn: Newcastle University
Anusha Kesireddy: Jacobs University Bremen
Karunakar Reddy Pothula: Jacobs University Bremen
Albert Schulte: Wangchan Valley
Arnaud Baslé: Newcastle University
Ulrich Kleinekathöfer: Jacobs University Bremen
Wipa Suginta: Suranaree University of Technology
Bert Berg: Newcastle University

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Chitin, an insoluble polymer of N-acetylglucosamine, is one of the most abundant biopolymers on Earth. By degrading chitin, chitinolytic bacteria such as Vibrio harveyi are critical for chitin recycling and maintenance of carbon and nitrogen cycles in the world’s oceans. A decisive step in chitin degradation is the uptake of chito-oligosaccharides by an outer membrane protein channel named chitoporin (ChiP). Here, we report X-ray crystal structures of ChiP from V. harveyi in the presence and absence of chito-oligosaccharides. Structures without bound sugar reveal a trimeric assembly with an unprecedented closing of the transport pore by the N-terminus of a neighboring subunit. Substrate binding ejects the pore plug to open the transport channel. Together with molecular dynamics simulations, electrophysiology and in vitro transport assays our data provide an explanation for the exceptional affinity of ChiP for chito-oligosaccharides and point to an important role of the N-terminal gate in substrate transport.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-02523-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-02523-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02523-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().