Methylated Glycans As Conserved Targets of Animal and Fungal Innate
Methylated glycans as conserved targets of animal PNAS PLUS and fungal innate defense Therese Wohlschlagera, Alex Butschib, Paola Grassic, Grigorij Sutovc, Robert Gaussa, Dirk Hauckd,e, Stefanie S. Schmiedera, Martin Knobela, Alexander Titzd,e, Anne Dellc, Stuart M. Haslamc, Michael O. Hengartnerb, Markus Aebia, and Markus Künzlera,1 aInstitute of Microbiology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland; bInstitute of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zürich, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland; cDepartment of Life Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom; dDepartment of Chemistry, University of Konstanz, 78457 Konstanz, Germany; and eChemical Biology of Carbohydrates, Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany Edited by Laura L. Kiessling, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, and approved May 2, 2014 (received for review January 21, 2014) Effector proteins of innate immune systems recognize specific non- with each domain representing a blade formed by a four-stranded self epitopes. Tectonins are a family of β-propeller lectins conserved antiparallel β-sheet (5, 10). Several members of the Tectonin from bacteria to mammals that have been shown to bind bacterial superfamily have been described as defense molecules or recog- lipopolysaccharide (LPS). We present experimental evidence that nition factors in innate immunity based on antibacterial activity or two Tectonins of fungal and animal origin have a specificity for bacteria-induced expression. Because most of them bind to bac- O-methylated glycans. We show that Tectonin 2 of the mushroom terial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), these proteins were proposed to Laccaria bicolor (Lb-Tec2) agglutinates Gram-negative bacteria and be lectins.
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