title: Determinants of entry exclusion within Eex and TraG are cytoplasmic.
abstract: We report here functional and topological analyses of TraG and Eex, the donor and recipient cell inner membrane proteins that mediate entry exclusion in the SXT/R391 family of integrative conjugative elements. We found that the exclusion-determining regions of the Eex variants EexS (SXT) and EexR (R391) are located in distinct yet overlapping regions of the proteins. Unexpectedly, the carboxyl-terminal regions of TraG and Eex, which contain the residues essential for exclusion activity and specificity, were found to localize in the cell cytoplasm. These observations suggest that complex topological rearrangements of conjugative proteins must occur during mating to enable these domains to interact.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University School of Medicine, and Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 181 Longwood Ave., Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Joeli
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Marrero
authors.forename: Matthew K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Waldor
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D003227:Conjugation, Genetic; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000378:metabolism*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary
chemical_list: D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; C088223:Eex protein, E coli; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; C073791:TraG protein, E coli