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Journal of Bacteriology, May 2009, p. 2926-2933, Vol. 191, No. 9
0021-9193/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00032-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

The Putative Coupling Protein TcpA Interacts with Other pCW3-Encoded Proteins To Form an Essential Part of the Conjugation Complex{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Jennifer A. Steen,1 Trudi L. Bannam,1 Wee Lin Teng,1 Rodney J. Devenish,2 and Julian I. Rood1*

Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Structural and Functional Microbial Genomics, Departments of Microbiology,1 Biochemistry Molecular Biology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia2

Received 12 January 2009/ Accepted 18 February 2009

Conjugative plasmids encode antibiotic resistance determinants or toxin genes in the anaerobic pathogen Clostridium perfringens. The paradigm conjugative plasmid in this bacterium is pCW3, a 47-kb tetracycline resistance plasmid that encodes the unique tcp transfer locus. The tcp locus consists of 11 genes, intP and tcpA-tcpJ, at least three of which, tcpA, tcpF, and tcpH, are essential for the conjugative transfer of pCW3. In this study we examined protein-protein interactions involving TcpA, the putative coupling protein. Use of a bacterial two-hybrid system identified interactions between TcpA and TcpC, TcpG, and TcpH. This analysis also demonstrated TcpA, TcpC, and TcpG self-interactions, which were confirmed by chemical cross-linking studies. Examination of a series of deletion and site-directed derivatives of TcpA identified the domains and motifs required for these interactions. Based on these results, we have constructed a model for this unique conjugative transfer apparatus.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia. Phone: 61 3 9902 9157. Fax: 61 3 9902 9222. E-mail: julian.rood{at}med.monash.edu.au

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 27 February 2009.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/.

Journal of Bacteriology, May 2009, p. 2926-2933, Vol. 191, No. 9
0021-9193/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00032-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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