Structural Insight into Archaic and Alternative Chaperone-Usher Pathways Reveals a Novel Mechanism of Pilus Biogenesis.

ABSTRACT: Gram-negative pathogens express fibrous adhesive organelles that mediate targeting to sites of infection. The major class of these organelles is assembled via the classical, alternative and archaic chaperone-usher pathways. Although non-classical systems share a wider phylogenetic distribution and are associated with a range of diseases, little is known about their assembly mechanisms. Here we report atomic-resolution insight into the structure and biogenesis of Acinetobacter baumannii Csu and Escherichia coli ECP biofilm-mediating pili. We show that the two non-classical systems are structurally related, but their assembly mechanism is strikingly different from the classical assembly pathway. Non-classical chaperones, unlike their classical counterparts, maintain subunits in a substantial

SUBMITTER: Pakharukova N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4654587 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature