Streptococcus pneumoniae Type 1 Pilus - A Multifunctional Tool for Optimized Host Interaction.

ABSTRACT: Streptococcus pneumoniae represents a major Gram-positive human pathogen causing bacterial pneumonia, otitis media, meningitis, and other invasive diseases. Several pneumococcal isolates show increasing resistance rates against antibacterial agents. A variety of virulence factors promote pneumococcal pathogenicity with varying importance in different stages of host infection. Virulence related hair-like structures ("pili") are complex, surface located protein arrays supporting proper host interaction. In the last two decades different types of pneumococcal pili have been identified: pilus-1 (P1) and pilus-2 (P2) are formed by the catalytic activity of sortases that covalently assemble secreted polypeptide pilin subunits in a defined order and finally anchor the resulting pilus in th

SUBMITTER: Ness S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7899983 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature