Figure 5 - full size

Figure 5.
Figure 5 The putative carbohydrate-binding pocket at the Ly49A/H-2D^d interface. A close-up of the complex interface at site 1 is shown, centred at the open cavity around N176, a conserved glycosylation site in rodent MHC-I molecules. The orientation and the polypeptide chain representation are as in Fig. 1b. Two proximal carbohydrates, a GlcNAc and a fucose residue, have been modelled on the basis of crystal structures of MHC-I molecules deposited in the Protein Data Bank. The carbohydrate residues (pink) and surrounding amino-acid side chains (cyan for Ly49A and yellow for H-2D^d) are shown in ball-and-stick representation; the branching fucose residue could fit well into the deep open pocket. The red arrow indicates position 4 in the GluNAc residue where the rest of the oligosaccharide is attached, and which can establish further interactions along the flat surface of the Ly49A dimer (Fig. 1b).