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J. Bacteriol., Jul 1996, 3809-3817, Vol 178, No. 13
RA Alm and JS Mattick
Type 4 fimbriae are surface filaments produced by a range of bacterial
pathogens for colonization of host epithelial surfaces. In Pseudomonas
aeruginosa, they are involved in adhesion as well as in a form of surface
translocation called twitching motility, and sensitivity to infection by
fimbria-specific bacteriophage. Analysis of the 2.5-kb intergenic region
between the previously defined pilR and pilV genes on P. aeruginosa genomic
SpeI fragment E has identified three new genes, fimT, fimU, and dadA*. The
predicted 18.5-kDa products of the fimT and fimU genes contain
prepilin-like leader sequences, whereas the third gene, dadA*, encodes a
protein similar to the D-amino acid dehydrogenase of Escherichia coli.
Isogenic mutants constructed by allelic exchange demonstrated that the fimU
gene was required for fimbrial biogenesis and twitching motility, whereas
the fimT and dada* mutants retained wild-type phenotypes. However,
overexpression of the fimT gene was found to be able to functionally
replace the lack of a fimU gene product, suggesting a subtle role in
fimbrial biogenesis. The identification of these proteins increases the
similarity between type 4 fimbrial biogenesis and the supersystems involved
in macromolecular traffic, such as extracellular protein secretion and DNA
uptake, all of which now possess multiple protein species that possess
prepilin-like leader sequences.
Copyright © 1996, American Society for Microbiology
Identification of two genes with prepilin-like leader sequences involved in type 4 fimbrial biogenesis in Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Centre for Molecular and Cellular Biology, The University of Queensland, Australia.
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