Publications

• Secondary structure reshuffling modulates glycosyltransferase function at the membrane.

  Giganti D., Albesa-Jove D., Urresti S., Rodrigo-Unzueta A., Martinez M.A., Comino N., Barilone N., Bellinzoni M., Chenal A., Guerin M.E., Alzari P.M.

  Secondary structure refolding is a key event in biology as it modulates the conformation of many proteins in the cell, generating functional or aberrant states. The crystal structures of mannosyltransferase PimA reveal an exceptional flexibility of the protein along the catalytic cycle, including ... >> More

  Secondary structure refolding is a key event in biology as it modulates the conformation of many proteins in the cell, generating functional or aberrant states. The crystal structures of mannosyltransferase PimA reveal an exceptional flexibility of the protein along the catalytic cycle, including β-strand-to-α-helix and α-helix-to-β-strand transitions. These structural changes modulate catalysis and are promoted by interactions of the protein with anionic phospholipids in the membrane. << Less

  Nat. Chem. Biol. 11:16-18(2015) [PubMed] [EuropePMC]

• Expression and purification of a functionally active recombinant GDP-mannosyltransferase (PimA) from Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv.

  Gu X., Chen M., Wang Q., Zhang M., Wang B., Wang H.

  Lipoarabinomannans (LAM), especially mannose-capped LAM, abundant in the cell wall of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) exhibit a broad spectrum of immunomodulatory functions and emerge as key virulence factors that may be relevant drug targets. The pimA gene of mycobacteria encodes a alpha-mannosy ... >> More

  Lipoarabinomannans (LAM), especially mannose-capped LAM, abundant in the cell wall of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) exhibit a broad spectrum of immunomodulatory functions and emerge as key virulence factors that may be relevant drug targets. The pimA gene of mycobacteria encodes a alpha-mannosyltransferase involved in the transfer reaction of the very first mannose from GDP-mannose to the carrier lipid phosphatidyl-myo-inositol, a precursor in the synthesis of LAM. PimA has been proposed to play an essential role in the growth of mycobacteria. In this study, the pimA gene from M. tuberculosis H37Rv was cloned into the pET28a vector and the recombinant plasmid was transformed into Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) strain, allowing the expression of the Mtb PimA in fusion with a histidine-rich peptide on the N-terminal. The Mtb PimA was purified from the supernatant of the lysed cells under native conditions by immobilized metal affinity chromatography. The purity and molecular weight of Mtb PimA were determined by high performance liquid chromatography and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight. Circular dichroism spectroscopy study on Mtb PimA showed that the protein was folded. The enzyme assays revealed that Mtb PimA showed a requirement for Mg(2+) for the activity and the K(m) and V(max) values of Mtb PimA were estimated at 18 +/-2 microM and 0.1 +/-0.05 nmol/min/microg, respectively. This is the first report describing cloning and expression of GDP-mannosyltransferase gene of M. tuberculosis in E. coli. << Less

  Protein Expr. Purif. 42:47-53(2005) [PubMed] [EuropePMC]

• Definition of the first mannosylation step in phosphatidylinositol mannoside synthesis. PimA is essential for growth of mycobacteria.

  Kordulakova J., Gilleron M., Mikusova K., Puzo G., Brennan P.J., Gicquel B., Jackson M.

  We examined the function of the pimA (Rv2610c) gene, located in the vicinity of the phosphatidylinositol synthase gene in the genomes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium smegmatis, which encodes a putative mannosyltransferase involved in the early steps of phosphatidylinositol mannosid ... >> More

  We examined the function of the pimA (Rv2610c) gene, located in the vicinity of the phosphatidylinositol synthase gene in the genomes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium smegmatis, which encodes a putative mannosyltransferase involved in the early steps of phosphatidylinositol mannoside synthesis. A cell-free assay was developed in which membranes from M. smegmatis overexpressing the pimA gene incorporate mannose from GDP-[(14)C]Man into di- and tri-acylated phosphatidylinositol mono-mannosides. Moreover, crude extracts from Escherichia coli producing a recombinant PimA protein synthesized diacylated phosphatidylinositol mono-mannoside from GDP-[(14)C]Man and bovine phosphatidylinositol. To determine whether PimA is an essential enzyme of mycobacteria, we constructed a pimA conditional mutant of M. smegmatis. The ability of this mutant to synthesize the PimA mannosyltransferase was dependent on the presence of a functional copy of the pimA gene carried on a temperature-sensitive rescue plasmid. We demonstrate here that the pimA mutant is unable to grow at the higher temperature at which the rescue plasmid is lost. Thus, the synthesis of phosphatidylinositol mono-mannosides and derived higher phosphatidylinositol mannosides in M. smegmatis appears to be dependent on PimA and essential for growth. This work provides the first direct evidence of the essentiality of phosphatidylinositol mannosides for the growth of mycobacteria. << Less

  J. Biol. Chem. 277:31335-31344(2002) [PubMed] [EuropePMC]