Supplementary Materials [Supplemental material] supp_193_13_3276__index. not with one encoding a 129830-38-2 Cys116Ala substitution in the active site. The mutant cleaved the SlpA precursor normally and had a wild-type-like colony phenotype. Both Cwp84 and Cwp13 are produced as proenzymes which are processed by cleavage to produce mature enzymes. In the case of Cwp84, this cleavage does not appear to be autocatalytic, whereas in Cwp13 autocatalysis 129830-38-2 was demonstrated as a Cys109Ala mutant did not undergo processing. Cwp13 appears to have a role in processing of Cwp84 but is not essential for Cwp84 activity. Cwp13 cleaves SlpA in the HMW SLP domain, which we suggest may reflect a role in degradation and cleavage of misfolded proteins in the cell surface. INTRODUCTION can be a Gram-positive, spore-forming anaerobe that may trigger significant gastrointestinal attacks in pets and human beings (8, 34). disease (CDI) is mostly seen in medical center environments and it is connected with antimicrobial therapy that disrupts the standard microbiota (1). Clinical symptoms of disease range between mild or serious diarrhea to significant inflammatory circumstances including pseudomembranous colitis (34). Although older people human population continues to be the biggest at-risk group still, CDI is significantly being observed in young individuals and in individuals locally (16). The spores will be the infectious type of the bacterium, as lately demonstrated inside a mouse style of transmitting (25). Symptoms of disease are due to two secreted virulence elements mainly, the toxins TcdB and TcdA. The systems of action of the toxins have already been well referred to, with both poisons exhibiting glucosyltransferase activity which inactivates Rho GTPases within sponsor cells (21). This causes pleiotropic results, including disruption from the actin cytoskeleton and limited junctions, induction of apoptosis, liquid accumulation, and damage from the epithelium. Latest research using toxin knockout strains in the hamster style of disease have examined the fundamental nature of the poisons in disease (24, 27). Although the results of these studies were not in complete agreement, it appears that toxin A-negative strains were more virulent than toxin B-negative strains. has a cell wall typical of Gram-positive bacteria, comprising a cytoplasmic membrane and a thick peptidoglycan layer that may contain teichoic acids and other secondary cell wall polymers (31). In common with many bacteria, expresses an S-layer, a two-dimensional proteinaceous array that coats the outer surface of the bacterium. The S-layer is composed primarily of two proteins, the high-molecular-weight S-layer protein (HMW SLP) and the low-molecular-weight (LMW) SLP (5). The SLPs can be removed from the cell by treatment with low pH glycine (5), which also removes other cell wall proteins (CWPs) present in relatively low amounts within the cell wall. The HMW SLP and the CWPs each contain three cell wall-binding motifs (Pfam 04122 [http://pfam.sanger.ac.uk/]) that appear to mediate noncovalent binding to the underlying cell wall by an uncharacterized mechanism. The majority of the CWPs have a second unique domain that in some cases specifies, or is predicted to specify, a function (11). Examples include Cwp66, a putative adhesin (41), CwpV, a phase-variable protein (12), and Cwp84, a cysteine protease (20). The SLPs are present as a heterodimeric complex within the S-layer, and structural analysis has revealed the HMW SLP and LMW SLP interact through highly Rabbit polyclonal to POLR2A conserved domains present at the C terminus of the LMW SLP and the N-terminal domain of the HMW SLP (14). The remaining portions of the SLPs exhibit sequence divergence, in particular the LMW SLP, which shows immunological diversity between many strains (4). The SLPs are derived from a precursor protein, SlpA, by proteolytic cleavage which removes the signal peptide, followed by a second cleavage resulting in the mature SLPs (5, 22). 129830-38-2 Recently, using both chemical and genetic techniques, the cysteine protease Cwp84 was shown to mediate cleavage of the mature SlpA precursor (9, 23). Cwp84 has also been implicated in degradation of extracellular matrix proteins such as fibronectin, laminin, and vitronectin (20). Neither chemical inhibition of Cwp84 (9) nor inactivation.