Structural insights into RbmA, a biofilm scaffolding protein of V. cholerae.

Abstract

V. cholerae can form sessile biofilms associated with abiotic surfaces, cyanobacteria, zoo-plankton, mollusks, or crustaceans. Along with the vibrio polysaccharide, secreted proteins of the rbm gene cluster are key to the biofilm ultrastructure. Here we provide a thorough structural characterization of RbmA, a protein involved in mediating cell-cell and cell-biofilm contacts. We correlate our structural findings with initial ligand specificity screening results, NMR protein-ligand interaction analysis, and complement our results with a full biocomputational study.