A novel secretion apparatus for the assembly of adhesive bacterial pili.
The biogenesis of most types of bacterial pili requires two specialized proteins: a chaperone that caps the pilus subunits in the periplasm, and an outer membrane usher that receives the subunits and serves as an assembly platform. This secretion and assembly machinery is proposed to be a novel export apparatus found widely in Gram-negative pathogens.
Jacob-Dubuisson
F
F
Dept of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University Medical School, Saint Louis, MO 63110-1093.
Kuehn
M
M
Hultgren
S J
SJ
D001422:Bacterial Adhesion / Q000502:physiology*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D010861:Fimbriae, Bacterial / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006090:Gram-Negative Bacteria / Q000166:cytology
D001426:Bacterial Proteins