Skip to main content
  • ASM
    • Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotheraphy
    • Applied and Environmental Mircobiology
    • Clinical Microbiology Reviews
    • Clinical and Vaccine Immunology
    • EcoSal Plus
    • Eukaryotic Cell
    • Infection and Immunity
    • Journal of Bacteriology
    • Journal of Clinical Microbiology
    • Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education
    • Journal of Virology
    • mBio
    • Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews
    • Microbiology Resource Announcements
    • Microbiology Spectrum
    • Molecular and Cellular Biology
    • mSphere
    • mSystems
  • Log in
  • My alerts
  • My Cart

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current Issue
    • Accepted Manuscripts
    • Archive
    • Minireviews
    • JB Special Collection
    • JB Classic Spotlights
  • For Authors
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Scope
    • Editorial Policy
    • Submission, Review, & Publication Processes
    • Organization and Format
    • Errata, Author Corrections, Retractions
    • Illustrations and Tables
    • Nomenclature
    • Abbreviations and Conventions
    • Publication Fees
    • Ethics Resources and Policies
  • About the Journal
    • About JB
    • Editor in Chief
    • Editorial Board
    • For Reviewers
    • For the Media
    • For Librarians
    • For Advertisers
    • Alerts
    • RSS
    • FAQ
  • Subscribe
    • Members
    • Institutions
  • ASM
    • Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotheraphy
    • Applied and Environmental Mircobiology
    • Clinical Microbiology Reviews
    • Clinical and Vaccine Immunology
    • EcoSal Plus
    • Eukaryotic Cell
    • Infection and Immunity
    • Journal of Bacteriology
    • Journal of Clinical Microbiology
    • Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education
    • Journal of Virology
    • mBio
    • Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews
    • Microbiology Resource Announcements
    • Microbiology Spectrum
    • Molecular and Cellular Biology
    • mSphere
    • mSystems

User menu

  • Log in
  • My alerts
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Journal of Bacteriology
publisher-logosite-logo

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current Issue
    • Accepted Manuscripts
    • Archive
    • Minireviews
    • JB Special Collection
    • JB Classic Spotlights
  • For Authors
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Scope
    • Editorial Policy
    • Submission, Review, & Publication Processes
    • Organization and Format
    • Errata, Author Corrections, Retractions
    • Illustrations and Tables
    • Nomenclature
    • Abbreviations and Conventions
    • Publication Fees
    • Ethics Resources and Policies
  • About the Journal
    • About JB
    • Editor in Chief
    • Editorial Board
    • For Reviewers
    • For the Media
    • For Librarians
    • For Advertisers
    • Alerts
    • RSS
    • FAQ
  • Subscribe
    • Members
    • Institutions
Research Article

Motor properties of PilT-independent type 4 pilus retraction in gonococci

Robert Zöllner, Tom Cronenberg, Berenike Maier
Robert Zöllner
University of Cologne, Institute for Biological Physics
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Tom Cronenberg
University of Cologne, Institute for Biological Physics
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Berenike Maier
University of Cologne, Institute for Biological Physics
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: berenike.maier@uni-koeln.de
DOI: 10.1128/JB.00778-18
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

ABSTRACT

Bacterial type 4 pili (T4P) belong to the strongest molecular machines. The gonococcal T4P retraction ATPase PilT supports forces exceeding 100 pN during T4P retraction. Here, we address the question whether gonococcal T4P retract in the absence of PilT. We show that pilT deletion strains indeed retract their T4P but the maximum force is reduced to 5 pN. Similarly, the speed of T4P retraction is lower by orders of magnitude compared to T4P retraction driven by PilT. Deleting the pilT paralogue pilT2 further reduces the speed of T4P retraction, yet T4P retraction is detectable in the absence of all three pilT paralogues. Furthermore, we show that depletion of proton motive force slows down but does not inhibit pilT-independent T4P retraction. We conclude that the retraction ATPase is not essential for gonococcal T4P retraction. However, the force generated in the absence of PilT is too low to support important functions of T4P including twitching motility, fluidization of colonies, or induction of host cell response.

IMPORTANCE Bacterial type 4 pili (T4P) have been termed the "swiss army knives" of bacteria because they perform numerous functions including host cell interaction, twitching motility, colony formation, DNA uptake, protein secretion, and surface sensing. The pilus fibre continuously elongates or retracts and these dynamics are functionally important. Curiously, only a subset of T4P systems employs T4P retraction ATPases to power T4P retraction. Here we show that one of the strongest T4P machines, the gonococcal T4P, retracts without a retraction ATPase. Biophysical characterization reveals strongly reduced force and speed compared to retraction with ATPase. We propose that bacteria encode for retraction ATPases when T4P have to generate high force supporting functions like twitching motility, triggering host cell response, or fluidizing colonies.

  • Copyright © 2019 American Society for Microbiology.

All Rights Reserved.

Log in using your username and password

Forgot your user name or password?

Log in through your institution

You may be able to gain access using your login credentials for your institution. Contact your library if you do not have a username and password.
If your organization uses OpenAthens, you can log in using your OpenAthens username and password. To check if your institution is supported, please see this list. Contact your library for more details.

Purchase access

You may purchase access to this article. This will require you to create an account if you don't already have one.
PreviousNext
Back to top
Download PDF
Citation Tools
Motor properties of PilT-independent type 4 pilus retraction in gonococci
Robert Zöllner, Tom Cronenberg, Berenike Maier
Journal of Bacteriology Jan 2019, JB.00778-18; DOI: 10.1128/JB.00778-18

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Print

Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email

Thank you for sharing this Journal of Bacteriology article.

NOTE: We request your email address only to inform the recipient that it was you who recommended this article, and that it is not junk mail. We do not retain these email addresses.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Motor properties of PilT-independent type 4 pilus retraction in gonococci
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Journal of Bacteriology
(Your Name) thought you would be interested in this article in Journal of Bacteriology.
Share
Motor properties of PilT-independent type 4 pilus retraction in gonococci
Robert Zöllner, Tom Cronenberg, Berenike Maier
Journal of Bacteriology Jan 2019, JB.00778-18; DOI: 10.1128/JB.00778-18
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Top
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

Cited By...

About

  • About JB
  • Editor in Chief
  • Editorial Board
  • Policies
  • For Reviewers
  • For the Media
  • For Librarians
  • For Advertisers
  • Alerts
  • RSS
  • FAQ
  • Permissions
  • Journal Announcements

Authors

  • ASM Author Center
  • Submit a Manuscript
  • Article Types
  • Ethics
  • Contact Us

Follow #Jbacteriology

@ASMicrobiology

       

ASM Journals

ASM journals are the most prominent publications in the field, delivering up-to-date and authoritative coverage of both basic and clinical microbiology.

About ASM | Contact Us | Press Room

 

ASM is a member of

Scientific Society Publisher Alliance

Copyright © 2019 American Society for Microbiology | Privacy Policy | Website feedback

Print ISSN: 0021-9193; Online ISSN: 1098-5530