Bacterial collagenase harnesses collagen geometry for processive cleavage

Collagen, the major structural protein in the animal extracellular matrix, forms a triple helix that resists proteolysis and requires specialised enzymes for degradation. Flesh-eating bacteria secrete collagenases that unwind the collagen triple helix and processively trim Gly-X-Y triplet repeats, yet the molecular basis of this process has remained obscure. Here, cryo-electron microscopy reveals how Hathewaya histolytica collagenase ColH engages its substrate and exploits the helix's architecture for catalysis. ColH encircles a single collagen triple helix in a closed-ring conformation and, through dynamic domain motions, dehydrates and destabilises it. The enzyme undergoes substrate-assisted twisting to adopt a rigid ratcheted conformation, in which one chain is bent into a tripeptide-long 'bight' and threaded into the active site for cleavage, while two uncut strands are partitioned to non-catalytic sites. Release of the bight appears to reset the enzyme, with the uncut strands serving as guiding tracks. Repeated cycling between dynamic and rigid states likely enables triplet-by-triplet translocation, allowing ColH to harness collagen's geometry for processive degradation. These findings reveal a bacterial strategy for collagen unwinding and cleavage distinct from that of mammalian collagenases, highlighting divergent evolutionary solutions for degrading one of nature's most intractable substrates.