title: Structural features common to intracellularly acting toxins from bacteria.
abstract: This mini-review focuses on structural features shared by bacterial intracellularly-acting toxins. These complex proteins adopt an A(n)B(m) assembly. B(m) is a cellular-uptake machinery that delivers the enzymatic A(n) component, where it specifically modifies an intracellular eukaryotic cell target. In this nomenclature, the m index reflects the mono- or oligomeric (homo or hetero) state of the B component and the n index indicates the number of A molecules that concomitantly bind to B(m). A structural analysis of the available 3D structures suggests that each of the A molecules that constitute the A(n) component can be divided into A(link) and A(enz) sub-domains, with A(link) specifically linking the enzymatically active A(enz) domain to a given B(m). This module-based A(n)B(m) assembly seems decisive for natural intracellularly-acting toxins to be potent and for the success of engineered toxins.
authors.affiliation: Institut Curie, UMR 144, 26 rue d'Ulm, 75248 Paris Cedex 05, France. julie.menetrey@curie.fr
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ménétrey
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gillet
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ménez
mesh_terms: D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000737:chemistry*; D011487:Protein Conformation
chemical_list: D001427:Bacterial Toxins