Recognition of microbial glycans by human intelectin-1.
Wesener, D.A., Wangkanont, K., McBride, R., Song, X., Kraft, M.B., Hodges, H.L., Zarling, L.C., Splain, R.A., Smith, D.F., Cummings, R.D., Paulson, J.C., Forest, K.T., Kiessling, L.L.(2015) Nat Struct Mol Biol 22: 603-610
- PubMed: 26148048 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.3053
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
4WMQ, 4WMY - PubMed Abstract: 
The glycans displayed on mammalian cells can differ markedly from those on microbes. Such differences could, in principle, be 'read' by carbohydrate-binding proteins, or lectins. We used glycan microarrays to show that human intelectin-1 (hIntL-1) does not bind known human glycan epitopes but does interact with multiple glycan epitopes found exclusively on microbes: β-linked D-galactofuranose (β-Galf), D-phosphoglycerol-modified glycans, heptoses, D-glycero-D-talo-oct-2-ulosonic acid (KO) and 3-deoxy-D-manno-oct-2-ulosonic acid (KDO). The 1.6-Å-resolution crystal structure of hIntL-1 complexed with β-Galf revealed that hIntL-1 uses a bound calcium ion to coordinate terminal exocyclic 1,2-diols. N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac), a sialic acid widespread in human glycans, has an exocyclic 1,2-diol but does not bind hIntL-1, probably owing to unfavorable steric and electronic effects. hIntL-1 marks only Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes that display surface glycans with terminal 1,2-diol groups. This ligand selectivity suggests that hIntL-1 functions in microbial surveillance.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.