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Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), a major global cause of diarrhea, initiates the pathogenic process via fimbriae-mediated attachment to the small intestinal epithelium. A common prototypic ETEC fimbria, colonization factor antigen I (CFA/I), consists of a tip-localized minor adhesive subunit CfaE and the stalk-forming major subunit CfaB, both of which are necessary for fimbrial assembly. To elucidate the structure of CFA/I at atomic resolution, three recombinant proteins were generated consisting of fusions of the minor and major subunits (CfaEB) and of two (CfaBB) and three (CfaBBB) repeats of the major subunit. Crystals of CfaEB diffracted X-rays to 2.1 A resolution and displayed the symmetry of space group P2(1). CfaBB exhibited a crystal diffraction limit of 2.3 A resolution and had the symmetry of space group P2(1)2(1)2. CfaBBB crystallized in the monoclinic space group C2 and diffracted X-rays to 2.3 A resolution. These structures were determined using the molecular-replacement method.

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) represents a formidable food and waterborne diarrheal disease threat of global importance. The first step in ETEC pathogenesis is bacterial attachment to small-intestine epithelial cells via adhesive fimbriae, many of which are genetically related to the prototype colonization factor antigen I (CFA/I). The minor fimbrial subunit CfaE is required for initiation of CFA/I fimbrial assembly and mediates bacterial attachment to host cell-surface receptors. A donor-strand complemented variant of CfaE (dscCfaE) was expressed with a hexahistidine tag, purified to homogeneity and crystallized using the hanging-drop vapor-diffusion method. X-ray diffraction data sets were collected to 2.4 A resolution for both native and derivatized crystals and showed the symmetry of space group P6(2)22, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 142.9, c = 231.9 A. Initial phases were derived from the SIRAS approach and electron density showed two molecules in the crystallographic asymmetric unit. Sequence assignments were aided by anomalous signals from the selenium of an SeMet-derivatized crystal and from S atoms of a native crystal.