title: Adherence of Borrelia burgdorferi. Identification of critical lysine residues in DbpA required for decorin binding.
abstract: Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, expresses on its surface two decorin binding adhesins, DbpA and DbpB. Previous studies have demonstrated that vaccination of mice with DbpA provided protection against challenge with heterologous Borrelia strains despite considerable sequence variability among DbpA in these strains. We have now examined the importance of individual amino acid residues in DbpA for decorin binding. We demonstrated that chemical modification of lysine residues resulted in loss of ligand binding activity. Of the 27 lysine residues in native DbpA from strain 297, 6 are present in most and 5 are conserved in all 30 DbpA sequences examined so far. Analysis of recombinant DbpA in which individual lysine residues have been mutated to alanine suggested that three of the conserved residues distributed throughout the DbpA sequence are required for decorin binding. These mutants lost their ability to bind decorin in Western ligand blot assay and bound reduced amounts of decorin in an ELISA. Furthermore, these mutant DbpA proteins did not inhibit the adherence of B. burgdorferi to a decorin substrata, and they did not recognize decorin in an extracellular matrix established by human fibroblast cultures. We conclude that the three lysine residues Lys-82, Lys-163, and Lys-170 are crucial for the binding of DbpA to decorin.
authors.affiliation: Center for Extracellular Matrix Biology, Albert B. Alkek Institute of Biosciences and Technology, Texas A&M University Health Science Center, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
authors.forename: E L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: B P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: O'Neal
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Höök
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001422:Bacterial Adhesion / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D015748:Borrelia burgdorferi Group / Q000502:physiology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases; D017931:DNA Primers; D058575:Decorin; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D016326:Extracellular Matrix Proteins; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D008239:Lysine / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D011485:Protein Binding; D011509:Proteoglycans / Q000378:metabolism*; D020365:RNA Helicases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: C546878:DCN protein, human; D017931:DNA Primers; C546879:Dcn protein, mouse; D058575:Decorin; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D016326:Extracellular Matrix Proteins; D011509:Proteoglycans; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; C065908:dbpA protein, E coli; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases; D020365:RNA Helicases; D008239:Lysine