Toxins 2010, 2(1), 116-127; doi:10.3390/toxins2010116
Review

Cytotoxic Necrotizing Factors (CNFs)−A Growing Toxin Family

Zeynep Knustemail and Gudula Schmidt* email
Institut für Experimentelle und Klinische Pharmakologie und Toxikologie, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Albertstr. 25, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 14 December 2009; in revised form: 15 January 2010 / Accepted: 20 January 2010 / Published: 21 January 2010
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bacterial Protein Toxins)
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Abstract: The Escherichia coli Cytotoxic Necrotizing Factors, CNF1, CNF2, CNF3 and CNFY from Yersinia pseudotuberculosis belong to a family of deamidating toxins. CNFs deamidate glutamine 63/61 in the switch II region of Rho GTPases that is essential for GTP hydrolysing activity. Deamidation leads to constitutive activation of Rho GTPases. However, cellular mechanisms like proteasomal degradation of the activated Rho proteins restrict the action of the GTPases. This review describes the differences between the toxin family members concerning expression, cellular entry and substrate specificity.
Keywords: Rho GTPase activation; deamidation; CNF; bacterial toxin

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MDPI and ACS Style

Knust, Z.; Schmidt, G. Cytotoxic Necrotizing Factors (CNFs)−A Growing Toxin Family. Toxins 2010, 2, 116-127.

AMA Style

Knust Z, Schmidt G. Cytotoxic Necrotizing Factors (CNFs)−A Growing Toxin Family. Toxins. 2010; 2(1):116-127.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Knust, Zeynep; Schmidt, Gudula. 2010. "Cytotoxic Necrotizing Factors (CNFs)−A Growing Toxin Family." Toxins 2, no. 1: 116-127.

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