A Single Amino Acid of Toll-like Receptor 4 That Is Pivotal for Its Signal Transduction and Subcellular Localization

Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) is essential for recognizing a Gram-negative bacterial component, lipopolysaccharide (LPS). A single amino acid mutation at position 712 of murine TLR4 leads to hyporesponsiveness to LPS. In this study we determined that an amino acid, a leucine at position 815 of human TLR4, is also pivotal for LPS responsiveness and subcellular distribution. By replacing the leucine with alanine, the mutant TLR4 lost responsiveness to LPS and did not localize on the plasma membrane. In addition, it does not coprecipitate with myeloid differentiation-2, an accessory protein that is necessary for TLR4 to recognize LPS. These results suggest that the leucine at position 815 is required for the normal maturation of TLR4 and for formation of the TLR4·MD-2 complex.