Phospholipid-independent biogenesis of a functional RP4 conjugation pilus
Ishimoto, N.; He, S.; Bogdanov, M. V.; Smith, T. K.; Frankel, G.; Beis, K.
Show abstract
Conjugation, the process of DNA transfer between bacteria, is initiated universally by the formation of a mating pair formation (MPF) via a conjugative pilus. Conjugation of the IncP RP4 plasmid is mediated by short, non-retractable, rigid mating pili. Here, we report the cryo-EM structure of the RP4 pilus at 2.75 [A] resolution. Uniquely, and consistently with quantitative mass spectral analysis, this revealed that the cyclic TrbC pilin subunit is not lipidated. Consistently, an E. coli pgsA mutant lacking phosphatidylglycerol (PG) can serve as a donor of RP4 but not of R27, encoding the H-pilus consisting of PG-associated cyclic pilin subunits (TrhA). The RP4 is the first example of a lipid-independent functional mating pilus. This discovery not only challenges the long-held assumption that an amphipathic lipid moiety is essential for the construction of conjugative pili and for MPF, but also expanding our understanding of the diverse mechanisms that bacteria employ to transfer genetic material.
Matching journals
The top 4 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
- Evidence for a widespread third system for bacterial polysaccharide export across the outer membrane comprising a composite OPX/β-barrel translocon 95%
- A bacterial inflammation sensor regulates c-di-GMP signaling, adhesion, and biofilm formation. 95%
- In situ Architecture of the Tad Pilus Machine in Caulobacter crescentus 95%
"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.