A fucose-binding superlectin from Enterobacter cloacae with high Lewis and ABO blood group antigen specificity

Bacteria frequently employ carbohydrate-binding proteins, so-called lectins, to colonize and persist in a host. Thus, bacterial lectins are attractive targets for the development of new anti-infectives. To find new potential targets for anti-infectives against pathogenic bacteria, we searched for homologs of Pseudomonas aeruginosa lectins and identified homologs of LecA in Enterobacter species. Here, we recombinantly produced and biophysically characterized a homolog that comprises one LecA domain and one additional, novel protein domain. This protein was termed Enterobacter cloacae lectin A (EclA) and found to bind l-fucose. Glycan array analysis revealed a high specificity for the LewisA antigen and the type II H-antigen (blood group O) for EclA, while related antigens LewisX, Y, and B, as well as blood group A or B were not bound. We developed a competitive binding assay to quantify blood group antigen-binding specificity in solution. Finally, the crystal structure of EclA could be solved in complex with methyl α-l-selenofucoside. It revealed the unexpected binding of the carbohydrate ligand to the second domain, which comprises a novel fold that dimerizes via strand-swapping resulting in an intertwined beta sheet.