The transjugation machinery of Thermus thermophilus: Identification of TdtA, an ATPase involved in DNA donation.

ABSTRACT: In addition to natural competence, some Thermus thermophilus strains show a high rate of DNA transfer via direct cell-to-cell contact. The process is bidirectional and follows a two-step model where the donor cell actively pushes out DNA and the recipient cell employs the natural competence system to take up the DNA, in a hybrid transformation-dependent conjugation process (transjugation). While the DNA uptake machinery is well known as in other bacterial species that undergo transformation, the pushing step of transjugation remains to be characterized. Here we have searched for hypothetical DNA translocases putatively involved in the pushing step of transjugation. Among candidates encoded by T. thermophilus HB27, the TdtA protein was found to be required for DNA pushing but not for DNA pu

SUBMITTER: Blesa A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5365140 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature