Structural studies and functional engineering of NanX: an anhydro-sialic acid transporter from Escherichia coli.

Authors

Michael C Newton-Vesty, Kelsi R Hall, Zachary D Tillett, Liam S Turk, James S Davies, Michael J Currie, Hamish G Brown, Sepideh Valimehr, Peter D Mace, Andrew E Whitten, Santosh Panjikar, Eric Hanssen, Rachel A North, Renwick C J Dobson

Published in

FEBS open bio. Jul 14, 2026. Epub Jul 14, 2026.

Abstract

NanT and NanX are bacterial transporters that import the sialic acids, N-acetylneuraminate and 2,7-anhydro-n-acetylneuraminate, respectively. Here, we used complementary biophysical and computational approaches to structurally characterise Escherichia coli NanX. Size exclusion chromatography, analytical ultracentrifugation and low-resolution cryo-electron microscopy reveal that NanX exists in both monomeric and dimeric states following purification. Molecular modelling and substrate docking identify key residues likely involved in 2,7-anhydro-n-acetylneuraminate recognition. Using this information, we engineered a mutant NanX transporter that can import the NanT-specific substrate, N-acetylneuraminate, which we verified using a bacterial growth assay. These data identify amino acids involved in major facilitator superfamily mediated sialic acid transport and offer a new research perspective of its metabolism.

PMID:
42444398
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 14 Jul 2026.

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