TY - JOUR A1 - Fischer, Annette A1 - Harrison, Kelly S A1 - Ramirez, Yesid A1 - Auer, Daniela A1 - Chowdhury, Suvagata Roy A1 - Prusty, Bhupesh K A1 - Sauer, Florian A1 - Dimond, Zoe A1 - Kisker, Caroline A1 - Hefty, P Scott A1 - Rudel, Thomas T1 - Chlamydia trachomatis-containing vacuole serves as deubiquitination platform to stabilize Mcl-1 and to interfere with host defense JF - eLife N2 - Obligate intracellular Chlamydia trachomatis replicate in a membrane-bound vacuole called inclusion, which serves as a signaling interface with the host cell. Here, we show that the chlamydial deubiquitinating enzyme (Cdu) 1 localizes in the inclusion membrane and faces the cytosol with the active deubiquitinating enzyme domain. The structure of this domain revealed high similarity to mammalian deubiquitinases with a unique α-helix close to the substrate-binding pocket. We identified the apoptosis regulator Mcl-1 as a target that interacts with Cdu1 and is stabilized by deubiquitination at the chlamydial inclusion. A chlamydial transposon insertion mutant in the Cdu1-encoding gene exhibited increased Mcl-1 and inclusion ubiquitination and reduced Mcl-1 stabilization. Additionally, inactivation of Cdu1 led to increased sensitivity of C. trachomatis for IFNγ and impaired infection in mice. Thus, the chlamydial inclusion serves as an enriched site for a deubiquitinating activity exerting a function in selective stabilization of host proteins and protection from host defense. KW - cell-autonomous defense KW - Chlamydia trachomatis KW - deubiquitinase KW - Mcl-1 Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-171073 VL - 6 IS - e21465 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Koelmel, Wolfgang A1 - Kuper, Jochen A1 - Kisker, Caroline T1 - Cesium based phasing of macromolecules: a general easy to use approach for solving the phase problem JF - Scientific Reports N2 - Over the last decades the phase problem in macromolecular x-ray crystallography has become more controllable as methods and approaches have diversified and improved. However, solving the phase problem is still one of the biggest obstacles on the way of successfully determining a crystal structure. To overcome this caveat, we have utilized the anomalous scattering properties of the heavy alkali metal cesium. We investigated the introduction of cesium in form of cesium chloride during the three major steps of protein treatment in crystallography: purification, crystallization, and cryo-protection. We derived a step-wise procedure encompassing a "quick-soak"-only approach and a combined approach of CsCl supplement during purification and cryo-protection. This procedure was successfully applied on two different proteins: (i) Lysozyme and (ii) as a proof of principle, a construct consisting of the PH domain of the TFIIH subunit p62 from Chaetomium thermophilum for de novo structure determination. Usage of CsCl thus provides a versatile, general, easy to use, and low cost phasing strategy. KW - structural biology KW - X-ray crystallography Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-261644 VL - 11 IS - 1 ER -