Structural basis of interaction between dimeric cyclophilin 1 and Myb1 transcription factor in Trichomonas vaginalis.

Cyclophilin 1 (TvCyP1), a cyclophilin type peptidyl-prolyl isomerase present in the human parasite Trichomonas vaginalis, interacts with Myb1 and assists in its nuclear translocation. Myb1 regulates the expression of ap65-1 gene that encodes for a disease causing cytoadherence enzyme. Here, we determined the crystal structures of TvCyP1 and its complex with the minimum TvCyP1-binding sequence of Myb1 (Myb1104-111), where TvCyP1 formed a homodimer, unlike other single domain cyclophilins. In the complex structure, one Myb1104-111 peptide was bound to each TvCyP1 protomer, with G106-P107 and Y105 fitting well into the active site and auxiliary S2 pocket, respectively. NMR data further showed that TvCyP1 can catalyze the cis/trans isomerization of P107 in Myb1104-111. Interestingly, in the well-folded Myb1 protein (Myb135-141), the minimum binding sequence adopted a different conformation from that of unstructured Myb1104-111 peptide, that could make P107 binding to the active site of TvCyP1 difficult. However, NMR studies showed that similar to Myb1104-111 peptide, Myb135-141 also interacted with the active site of TvCyP1 and the dynamics of the Myb135-141 residues near P107 was reduced upon interaction. Together, the structure of TvCyP1 and detailed structural insights on TvCyP1-Myb1 interaction provided here could pave the way for newer drugs to treat drug-resistant strains.

1H, 13C and 15N resonance assignments and secondary structures of cyclophilin 2 from Trichomonas vaginalis.

Cyclophilins are peptidyl prolyl isomerases that play an important role in a wide variety of biological functions like protein folding and trafficking, intracellular and extracellular signaling pathways, nuclear translocation and in pre-mRNA splicing. Two cyclophilins have been identified in the parasitic organism Trichomonas vaginalis and were named as TvCyP1 and TvCyP2. The 2 enzymes have been found to interact with Myb transcription factors in the parasite which regulate the iron induced expression of ap65-1 gene leading to cytoadherence of the parasite to human vaginal epithelial cells to cause the disease trichomoniasis. TvCyP2 was found to interact specifically with Myb3 to regulate nuclear translocation of the transcription factor. It would be intriguing to identify the binding site of both proteins as it could pave way to newer targets for drug discovery. Here we report the 1H, 13C and 15N resonance assignments and secondary structure information of TvCyP2 that could help us investigate the interaction between Myb3 and TvCyP2 in detail using NMR.