title: Crystal structure of the protease-resistant core domain of Yersinia pestis virulence factor YopR.
abstract: Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of the plague, employs a type III secretion system (T3SS) to secrete and translocate virulence factors into to the cytoplasm of mammalian host cells. One of the secreted virulence factors is YopR. Little is known about the function of YopR other than that it is secreted into the extracellular milieu during the early stages of infection and that it contributes to virulence. Hoping to gain some insight into the function of YopR, we determined the crystal structure of its protease-resistant core domain, which consists of residues 38-149 out of 165 amino acids. The core domain is composed of five alpha-helices that display unexpected structural similarity with one domain of YopN, a central regulator of type III secretion in Y. pestis. This finding raises the possibility that YopR may play a role in the regulation of type III secretion.
authors.affiliation: Macromolecular Crystallography Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute at Frederick, P.O. Box B, Frederick, MD 21702-1201, USA. waughd@ncifcrf.gov
authors.forename: Florian D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Schubot
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cherry
authors.forename: Brian P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Austin
authors.forename: Joseph E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Tropea
authors.forename: David S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Waugh
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases / Q000737:chemistry; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000737:chemistry*; D015010:Yersinia pestis / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D037521:Virulence Factors; C503796:YopR protein, Yersinia pestis; D010447:Peptide Hydrolases