The eight structural biology beamlines at the ALS have now collectively deposited over 7000 proteins into the Protein Data Bank (PDB), a worldwide, open-access repository of protein structures. The 7000th ALS protein structure (entry no. 6C7C) is an enzyme from Mycobacterium ulcerans (strain Agy99), solved with data from Beamline 5.0.2. This bacterium produces a toxin that eats away at skin tissue, causing what’s known as Buruli ulcers (Google at your own risk!). The bacterium is antibiotic-resistant, and treatment involves the surgical removal of infected tissues, including amputation.
The enzyme structure was solved by a group from the Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease (SSGID), whose mission is to obtain crystal structures of potential drug targets on the priority pathogen list of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). As of May 2018, SSGCID has deposited 1090 structures in the PDB, with data for more than a quarter of those collected at ALS beamlines.
>Read more on the Advanced Light Source website
Image: PDB 6C7C: Enoyl-CoA hydratase, an enzyme from M. ulcerans (strain Agy99).