Twin ushers guide pili across the bacterial outer membrane.
The chaperone/usher pathway is responsible for the assembly of adhesive pili on the surface of gram-negative pathogenic bacteria. In this issue, Remaut et al. (2008) present the crystal structure of the PapC usher translocation domain and images of the FimD usher bound to a pilus translocation intermediate. These new structures provide the first detailed view of a translocase in action.
Daniels
Robert
R
Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, 171 82 Solna, Sweden.
Normark
Staffan
S
D053898:Biosynthetic Pathways; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D036781:Fimbriae Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D010861:Fimbriae, Bacterial / Q000378:metabolism*; D018272:Porins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism
D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D018272:Porins; C111243:atpG protein, E coli; C489283:fimD protein, E coli; D036781:Fimbriae Proteins