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Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum is the causative agent of syphilis, a chronic, multistage, systemic infection that remains a major global health concern. The molecular mechanisms underlying T. pallidum pathogenesis are incompletely understood, partially due to the phylogenetic divergence of T. pallidum. One aspect of T. pallidum that differentiates it from conventional Gram-negative bacteria, and is believed to play an important role in pathogenesis, is its unusual cell envelope ultrastructure; in particular, the T. pallidum peptidoglycan layer is chemically distinct, thinner and more distal to the outer membrane. Established functional roles for peptidoglycan include contributing to the structural integrity of the cell envelope and stabilization of the flagellar motor complex, which are typically mediated by the OmpA domain-containing family of proteins. To gain insight into the molecular mechanisms that govern peptidoglycan binding and cell envelope biogenesis in T. pallidum we report here the structural characterization of the putative OmpA-like domain-containing protein, Tp0624. Analysis of the 1.70 Å resolution Tp0624 crystal structure reveals a multi-modular architecture comprised of three distinct domains including a C-terminal divergent OmpA-like domain, which we show is unable to bind the conventional peptidoglycan component diaminopimelic acid, and a previously uncharacterized tandem domain unit. Intriguingly, bioinformatic analysis indicates that the three domains together are found in all orthologs from pathogenic treponemes, but are not observed together in genera outside Treponema. These findings provide the first structural insight into a multi-modular treponemal protein containing an OmpA-like domain and its potential role in peptidoglycan coordination and stabilization of the T. pallidum cell envelope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Syphilis is a chronic disease caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum. Treponema pallidum disseminates widely throughout the host and extravasates from the vasculature, a process that is at least partially dependent upon the ability of T. pallidum to interact with host extracellular matrix (ECM) components. Defining the molecular basis for the interaction between T. pallidum and the host is complicated by the intractability of T. pallidum to in vitro culturing and genetic manipulation. Correspondingly, few T. pallidum proteins have been identified that interact directly with host components. Of these, Tp0751 (also known as pallilysin) displays a propensity to interact with the ECM, although the underlying mechanism of these interactions remains unknown. Towards establishing the molecular mechanism of Tp0751-host ECM attachment, we first determined the crystal structure of Tp0751 to a resolution of 2.15 Å using selenomethionine phasing. Structural analysis revealed an eight-stranded beta-barrel with a profile of short conserved regions consistent with a non-canonical lipocalin fold. Using a library of native and scrambled peptides representing the full Tp0751 sequence, we next identified a subset of peptides that showed statistically significant and dose-dependent interactions with the ECM components fibrinogen, fibronectin, collagen I, and collagen IV. Intriguingly, each ECM-interacting peptide mapped to the lipocalin domain. To assess the potential of these ECM-coordinating peptides to inhibit adhesion of bacteria to host cells, we engineered an adherence-deficient strain of the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi to heterologously express Tp0751. This engineered strain displayed Tp0751 on its surface and exhibited a Tp0751-dependent gain-of-function in adhering to human umbilical vein endothelial cells that was inhibited in the presence of one of the ECM-interacting peptides (p10). Overall, these data provide the first structural insight into the mechanisms of Tp0751-host interactions, which are dependent on the protein’s lipocalin fold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Leptospirosis, a re-emerging disease of global importance caused by pathogenic Leptospira spp., is considered the world's most widespread zoonotic disease. Rats serve as asymptomatic carriers of pathogenic Leptospira and are critical for disease spread. In such reservoir hosts, leptospires colonize the kidney, are shed in the urine, persist in fresh water and gain access to a new mammalian host through breaches in the skin. Methodology/Principal Findings: Previous studies have provided evidence for post-translational modification (PTM) of leptospiral proteins. In the current study, we used proteomic analyses to determine the presence of PTMs on the highly abundant leptospiral protein, LipL32, from rat urine-isolated L. interrogans serovar Copenhageni compared to in vitro-grown organisms. We observed either acetylation or tri-methylation of lysine residues within multiple LipL32 peptides, including peptides corresponding to regions of LipL32 previously identified as epitopes. Intriguingly, the PTMs were unique to the LipL32 peptides originating from in vivo relative to in vitro grown leptospires. The identity of each modified lysine residue was confirmed by fragmentation pattern analysis of the peptide mass spectra. A synthetic peptide containing an identified tri-methylated lysine, which corresponds to a previously identified LipL32 epitope, demonstrated significantly reduced immunoreactivity with serum collected from leptospirosis patients compared to the peptide version lacking the tri-methylation. Further, a subset of the identified PTMs are in close proximity to the established calcium-binding and putative collagen-binding sites that have been identified within LipL32. Conclusions/Significance: The exclusive detection of PTMs on lysine residues within LipL32 from in vivo-isolated L. interrogans implies that infection-generated modification of leptospiral proteins may have a biologically relevant function during the course of infection. Although definitive determination of the role of these PTMs must await further investigations, the reduced immune recognition of a modified LipL32 epitope suggests the intriguing possibility that LipL32 modification represents a novel mechanism of immune evasion within Leptospira. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]