The pili of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains PAK and PAO bind specifically to the carbohydrate sequence βGalNAc(1–4)βGal found in glycosphingolipids asialo‐GM1 and asialo‐GM2

Summary Pseudomonas aeruginosa employs pili to mediate adherence to epithelial cell surfaces. The pilus adhesin of P. aeruginosa strains PAK and PAO has been shown to bind to the glycolipid asialo‐GM 1 (Lee et al. , 1994 —accompanying article). PAK and PAO pili were examined for their abilities to bind to the synthetic βGalNAc(1–4)βGal (a minimal structural carbohydrate receptor sequence of asialo‐GM 1 and asialo‐GM 2 proposed by Krivan et al. , 1988a) using solid‐phase binding assays. Both pill specifically bound to βGalNAc(1–4)βGal. The binding of βGal‐NAc(1–4)βGal‐Biotin to the Immobilized PAK and PAO pili was inhibited by corresponding free pili. The receptor binding domain of the PAK pilus resides in the C ‐terminal disulphide‐looped region (residues 128–144) of the pilin structural subunit (Irvin et al. , 1989). Biotinylated synthetic peptides corresponding the C ‐terminal residues 128–144 of P. aeruginosa PAK and PAO pilin molecules were shown to bind to the βGalNAc(1–4)βGal‐(bovine serum albumin (BSA)). The binding of biotinylated peptides to βGalNAc‐(1–4)βGal‐BSA was inhibited by PAK pili, Ac‐KCTSDQDEOFIPKGCSK‐OH (AcPAK(128–144) ox ‐OH) and Ac‐ACKSTQDPMFTPKGCDN‐OH (AcPAO(128–144) ox ‐OH) peptides. (In these peptides Ac denotes N α ‐acetylation of the N ‐terminus, ‐OH means a peptide with a free a‐carboxyl group at the C ‐terminus and the‘ox’denotes the oxidation of the sulphhydryl groups of Cys–129 and Cys–142.) Both acetylated peptides were also able to inhibit the binding of βGalNAc(1–4)βGal‐biotin to the corresponding BSA‐Peptide(128–144) ox ‐OH conjugates. The βGlcNAc(1–3)βGal(1–4)βGlc‐biotin conjugate was unable to specifically bind to either Immobilized PAK and PAO pili or the respective C ‐termlnal peptides. The data above demonstrated that the P. aeruginosa pili recognize asialo‐GM 1 receptor analogue and that βGalNAc(1–4)βGal disaccharlde is sufficient for binding. Furthermore, the binding to βGalNAc(1–4)βGal was mediated by residues 128–144 of the pilin subunit.