Identification of responsible amino acid residues in staphylococcal superantigen-like 12 for the activation of mast cells.

Staphylococcal superantigen-like 12 (SSL12) is reported to evoke the degranulation in murine mast cells. The allelic variant of SSL12 in the genome of reference strain NCTC8325 induced the degranulation of murine mast cells, that of MRSA252 strain did not, nevertheless relatively high sequence similarity (82%). To identify responsible amino acid residues of SSL12 for mast cell activation, we created a series of domain swap mutants and amino acid substitution mutants between the active and inactive variants. The mutants that harbored oligonucleotide/oligosaccharide binding (OB)-fold domain of the active variant activated mast cells. The replacement at position 56 (L56F) in the OB-fold domain diminished the mast cell stimulatory activity, and the combinatorial substitutions L56F/K92E, L56F/D95S, and L56F/S100V abolished the stimulatory activities of the mutant that harbored OB-fold domain of the active variant and the intact active variant. These indicate that the responsive elements of SSL12 for mast cell activation are in the OB-fold of SSL12, and L56 would be an essential amino acid residue for the activation of mast cells. The findings would contribute to the understanding of the molecular mechanism of SSL12 for mast cell activation and the development of toxoids preventing allergic inflammations associated with Staphylococcus aureus.