Structural basis of protein arginine rhamnosylation by glycosyltransferase EarP

Protein glycosylation regulates many cellular processes. Numerous glycosyltransferases with broad substrate specificities have been structurally characterized. A novel inverting glycosyltransferase, EarP, specifically transfers rhamnose from dTDP-β-L-rhamnose to Arg32 of bacterial translation elongation factor P (EF-P) to activate its function. Here we report a crystallographic study of Neisseria meningitidis EarP. The EarP structure contains two tandem Rossmann-fold domains, which classifies EarP in glycosyltransferase superfamily B. In contrast to other structurally characterized protein glycosyltransferases, EarP binds the entire β-sheet structure of EF-P domain I through numerous interactions that specifically recognize its conserved residues. Thus Arg32 is properly located at the active site, and causes structural change in a conserved dTDP-β-L-rhamnose-binding loop of EarP. Rhamnosylation by EarP should occur via an S_N2 reaction, with Asp20 as the general base. The Arg32 binding and accompanying structural change of EarP may induce a change in the rhamnose-ring conformation suitable for the reaction.