The surfactant of Legionella pneumophila Is secreted in a TolC-dependent manner and is antagonistic toward other Legionella species.

ABSTRACT: When Legionella pneumophila grows on agar plates, it secretes a surfactant that promotes flagellum- and pilus-independent "sliding" motility. We isolated three mutants that were defective for surfactant. The first two had mutations in genes predicted to encode cytoplasmic enzymes involved in lipid metabolism. These genes mapped to two adjacent operons that we designated bbcABCDEF and bbcGHIJK. Backcrossing and complementation confirmed the importance of the bbc genes and suggested that the Legionella surfactant is lipid containing. The third mutant had an insertion in tolC. TolC is the outer membrane part of various trimolecular complexes involved in multidrug efflux and type I protein secretion. Complementation of the tolC mutant restored sliding motility. Mutants defective for an inner m

SUBMITTER: Stewart CR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3194911 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature