High resolution crystal structures of Clostridium botulinum neurotoxin A3 and A4 binding domains.
Davies, J.R., Rees, J., Liu, S.M., Acharya, K.R.(2018) J Struct Biol 202: 113-117
- PubMed: 29288126 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsb.2017.12.010
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
6F0O, 6F0P - PubMed Abstract: 
Clostridium botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) cause the life-threatening condition, botulism. However, while they have the potential to cause serious harm, they are increasingly being utilised for therapeutic applications. BoNTs comprise of seven distinct serotypes termed BoNT/A through BoNT/G, with the most widely characterised being sub-serotype BoNT/A1. Each BoNT consists of three structurally distinct domains, a binding domain (H C ), a translocation domain (H N ), and a proteolytic domain (LC). The H C domain is responsible for the highly specific targeting of the neurotoxin to neuronal cell membranes. Here, we present two high-resolution structures of the binding domain of subtype BoNT/A3 (H C /A3) and BoNT/A4 (H C /A4) at 1.6 Å and 1.34 Å resolution, respectively. The structures of both proteins share a high degree of similarity to other known BoNT H C domains whilst containing some subtle differences, and are of benefit to research into therapeutic neurotoxins with novel characteristics.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Department of Biology and Biochemistry, Claverton Down, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK.