Single Amino Acid Exchange in Bacteriophage HK620 Tailspike Protein Results in Thousand Fold Increase of its Oligosaccharide Affinity

摘要

Although of great importance for biological recognition processes, driving forces for carbohydrate protein complex formation are still elusive. Understanding thermodynamics of interactions between amphiphilic protein and sugar molecules in aqueous solution however would be important for binding site predictions. We have established a model system from bacteriophage tailspike proteins (TSP) recognizing bacterial outer membrane polysaccharides to study structural thermodynamics of large carbohydrate complexes (1-3).