Bifidobacterial enolase, a cell surface receptor for human plasminogen involved in the interaction with the host

¹ Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, CIRB-centre for Biotechnology, University of Bologna, Italy
² Department of Experimental Pathology, University of Bologna, Italy
³ Department of Agro Environmental Science and Technology, University of Bologna, Italy
⁴ Department of Microbial Pathogenicity, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research GmbH, Braunschweig, Germany
⁵ Department Genetics of Microorganisms, Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

The interaction with the host plasminogen/plasmin system represents a novel component in the molecular cross-talk between bifidobacteria and human host. Here, we demonstrated that the plasminogen-binding bifidobacterial species B. longum, B. bifidum, B. breve and B. lactis share the key glycolytic enzyme enolase as a surface receptor for human plasminogen. Enolase was visualized on the cell surface of the model strain B. lactis BI07. The His-tagged recombinant protein showed a high affinity for human plasminogen, with an equilibrium dissociation constant in the nanomolar range. By site-directed mutagenesis we demonstrated that the interaction between the B. lactis BI07 enolase and human plasminogen involves an internal plasminogen-binding site homologous to that of pneumococcal enolase. According to our data, the positively charged residues Lys-251 and Lys-255, as well as the negatively charged Glu-252, of the B. lactis BI07 enolase are crucial for plasminogen binding. Acting as a human plasminogen receptor, the bifidobacterial surface enolase is suggested to play an important role in the interaction process with the host.