NMR solution structure of a cyanovirin homolog from wheat head blight fungus

TLDR: The high‐resolution NMR solution structure of the homolog from the wheat head blight disease causing ascomycetous fungus Gibberella zeae, hereafter called GzCVNH, is determined, closely resembling recently determined structures of Tuber borchii, Neurospora crassa, and Ceratopteris richardii CVNH proteins.

Abstract: Members of the cyanovirin-N homolog (CVNH) lectin family are found in bacteria, fungi and plants. As part of our ongoing work on CVNH structure-function studies, we determined the high-resolution NMR solution structure of the homolog from the wheat head blight disease causing ascomycetous fungus Gibberella zeae (or Fusarium graminearum), hereafter called GzCVNH. Like cyanovirin-N (CV-N), GzCVNH comprises two tandem sequence repeats and the protein sequence exhibits 30% identity with CV-N. The overall structure is similar to those of other members of the CVNH family, with the conserved pseudo-symmetric halves of the structure, domains A and B, closely resembling recently determined structures of Tuber borchii, Neurospora crassa, and Ceratopteris richardii CVNH proteins. Although GzCVNH exhibits a similar glycan recognition profile to CV-N and specifically binds to Manα(1-2)Manα, its weak carbohydrate binding affinity to only one binding site is insufficient for conferring anti-HIV activity. Proteins 2011; © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.