Interestingly, CEA is only known from primates, where it is expressed by mucosal epithelial cells. Similar to CEA,

most other CEA-related CAMs (CEACAMs) are restricted to specific mammalian lineages, and only a few CEACAMs, such as CEACAM1 or CEACAM16-20, have orthologues in distantly related mammals [2–4]. Accordingly, sequence comparisons based on published genome data have provided evidence that CEACAMs have independently Adavosertib cell line diversified in each mammalian order [3, 5]. In humans, CEACAM1 is the target of several Gram-negative commensal and pathogenic bacteria that inhabit the nasopharyngeal, intestinal, or urogenital mucosa. In particular, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, N. lactamica, N. meningitidis, N. subflava, Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis, and Escherichia coli strains have been found to associate with the learn more protein core or carbohydrate structures of this glycoprotein [6–11]. These bacterial

species utilize distinct surface proteins (adhesins) to engage CEACAMs. For example, the neisserial colony opacity associated (Opa) proteins allow gonococci and meningococci to bind several CEACAM family members including CEACAM1, CEA, and CEACAM6, which are expressed on the apical surface of mucosal epithelial cells. Opa proteins are integral outer membrane proteins with 8 transmembrane β-strands and 4 small extracellular loops, with the central loops participating in CEACAM recognition [12]. Opa-like proteins with a similar β-barrel Selleck PF-2341066 structure are also found in commensal Neisseria species and can mediate the association with CEACAM1 [11]. Metalloexopeptidase In addition, several typeable and non-typeable strains of Haemophilus influenzae, a species that shares the mucosal habitat and lifestyle of Neisseria, can engage CEACAM1 via their outer membrane protein P5 [9]. Another inhabitant

of the human oro-pharyngeal mucosa, Moraxella catarrhalis, can bind via the UspA1 surface protein to the N-terminal domain of CEACAMs [10]. UspA1 belongs to the family of trimeric autotransporter or oligomeric coiled-coil adhesin (Oca) family. The prototype of the Oca family is the adhesin YadA of enteropathogenic Yersiniae that has a lollipop structure with a head group, an extended coiled-coil stalk region and a membrane anchor domain [13]. The mature trimeric UspA1 with a size of about 250 – 300 kDa protrudes up to 60 nm from the bacterial surface and is therefore completely distinct from membrane-embedded neisserial Opa proteins or the Haemophilus protein P5 [13]. Surprisingly, CEACAM recognition by the Moraxella UspA1 is mediated by a short sequence within the stalk region requiring a bend conformation of the UspA1 extracellular domain to accommodate CEACAM1 binding [14]. Moraxella strains lacking this peptide sequence within their stalk region fail to bind to CEACAMs [15].