Insights into the structure-function relationships of pneumococcal cell wall lysozymes, LytC and Cpl-1.

The LytC lysozyme belongs to the autolytic system of Streptococcus pneumoniae and carries out a slow autolysis with optimum activity at 30 degrees C. Like all pneumococcal murein hydrolases, LytC is a modular enzyme. Its mature form comprises a catalytic module belonging to the GH25 family of glycosyl-hydrolases and a cell wall binding module (CBM), made of 11 sequence repeats, that is essential for activity and specifically targets choline residues present in pneumococcal lipoteichoic and teichoic acids. Here we show that the catalytic module is natively folded, and its thermal denaturation takes place at 45.4 degrees C. However, the CBM is intrinsically unstable, and the ultimate folding and stabilization of the active, monomeric form of LytC relies on choline binding. The complex formation proceeds in a rather slow way, and all sites (8.0 +/- 0.5 sites/monomer) behave as equivalent (Kd = 2.7 +/- 0.3 mm). The CBM stabilization is, nevertheless, marginal, and irreversible denaturation becomes measurable at 37 degrees C even at high choline concentration, compromising LytC activity. In contrast, the Cpl-1 lysozyme, a homologous endolysin encoded by pneumococcal Cp-1 bacteriophage, is natively folded in the absence of choline and has maximum activity at 37 degrees C. Choline binding is fast and promotes Cpl-1 dimerization. Coupling between choline binding and folding of the CBM of LytC indicates a high conformational plasticity that could correlate with the unusual alternation of short and long choline-binding repeats present in this enzyme. Moreover, it can contribute to regulate LytC activity by means of a tight, complementary binding to the pneumococcal envelope, a limited motility, and a moderate resistance to thermal denaturation that could also account for its activity versus temperature profile.