title: Identification of a gene, pilV, required for type 4 fimbrial biogenesis in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, whose product possesses a pre-pilin-like leader sequence.
abstract: Type 4 fimbriae are important colonization factors in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and other pathogens that mediate attachment to epithelial cells of the host. They are also responsible for a form of translocation termed 'twitching motility' and are implicated in the susceptibility to fimbrial-specific bacteriophage. Analysis of a transposon mutant which lacks functional fimbriae has identified a new gene which is required for fimbrial biogenesis. This gene, termed pilV, is located on chromosomal SpeI fragment E, 2 kb downstream of the previously characterized pilSR genes involved in transcriptional activation of the fimbrial subunit gene. The pilV gene encodes a 20 kDa membrane-located protein with considerable amino-terminal homology to the type 4 consensus pre-pilin leader sequence, suggesting that it is processed by a leader peptidase. Site-directed mutagenesis has shown that PilV requires such cleavage to be functional. PilV also exhibits close similarity to a group of proteins involved in extracellular protein secretion from a number of Gram-negative bacteria, suggesting that the biogenesis of type 4 fimbriae may have a similar basis.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Alm
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Mattick
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D001483:Base Sequence; D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D002627:Chemistry, Physical; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D002876:Chromosomes, Bacterial; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D036781:Fimbriae Proteins; D010861:Fimbriae, Bacterial / Q000502:physiology*; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D006090:Gram-Negative Bacteria / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D009876:Operon; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000737:chemistry*; D021382:Protein Sorting Signals / Q000737:chemistry*; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C077573:PilV protein, Bacteria; D011498:Protein Precursors; D021382:Protein Sorting Signals; D036781:Fimbriae Proteins