title: Experimental manipulation of the microbial functional amyloid called curli.
abstract: Curli are proteinaceous fibrous structures produced on the surface of many gram-negative bacteria. As a major constituent of the extracellular matrix, curli mediate interactions between the bacteria and its environment, and as such, curli play a critical role in biofilm formation. Curli fibers share biophysical properties with a growing number of remarkably stable and ordered protein aggregates called amyloid. Here we describe experimental methods to study the biogenesis and assembly of curli by exploiting their amyloid properties. We also present methods to analyze curli-mediated biofilm formation. These approaches are straightforward and can easily be adapted to study other bacterially produced amyloids.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Development Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Yizhou
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Daniel R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Hufnagel
authors.forename: Matthew R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Chapman
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D018441:Biofilms; D015153:Blotting, Western; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D008854:Microscopy, Electron
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; C077481:Crl protein, Bacteria