Costa, Tiago and Ilangovan, Aravindan and Ukleja, Marta and Redzej, Adam and Santini, Joanne and Smith, T.K. and Egelman, E.H. and Waksman, Gabriel (2016) Structure of the Bacterial Sex F Pilus reveals an assembly of a Stoichiometric Protein-Phospholipid Complex. Cell 166 (6), 1436-1444.e10. ISSN 0092-8674.
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Abstract
Conjugative pili are widespread bacterial appendages that play important roles in horizontal gene transfer, in spread of antibiotic resistance genes, and as sites of phage attachment. Among conjugative pili, the F “sex” pilus encoded by the F plasmid is the best functionally characterized, and it is also historically the most important, as the discovery of F-plasmid-mediated conjugation ushered in the era of molecular biology and genetics. Yet, its structure is unknown. Here, we present atomic models of two F family pili, the F and pED208 pili, generated from cryoelectron microscopy reconstructions at 5.0 and 3.6 Å resolution, respectively. These structures reveal that conjugative pili are assemblies of stoichiometric protein-phospholipid units. We further demonstrate that each pilus type binds preferentially to particular phospholipids. These structures provide the molecular basis for F pilus assembly and also shed light on the remarkable properties of conjugative pili in bacterial secretion and phage infection.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Keyword(s) / Subject(s): | Pilus, Conjugation, Type 4 Secretion System, Phospholipid, Protein-phospholipid complex, Structural Biology, Cryoelectron Microscopy |
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Natural Sciences |
| Research Centres and Institutes: | Structural Molecular Biology, Institute of (ISMB) |
| Depositing User: | Administrator |
| Date Deposited: | 13 Sep 2016 10:16 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 17:26 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/16047 |
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