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Volume 157, Issue 7

Alanine 32 in PilA is important for PilA stability and type IV pili function in Free

Abstract

Type IV pili (TFP) are membrane-anchored filaments with a number of important biological functions. In the model organism , TFP act as molecular engines that power social (S) motility through cycles of extension and retraction. TFP filaments consist of several thousand copies of a protein called PilA or pilin. PilA contains an N-terminal α-helix essential for TFP assembly and a C-terminal globular domain important for its activity. The role of the PilA sequence and its structure–function relationship in TFP-dependent S motility remain active areas of research. In this study, we identified an PilA mutant carrying an alanine to valine substitution at position 32 in the α-helix, which produced structurally intact but retraction-defective TFP. Characterization of this mutant and additional single-residue variants at this position in PilA demonstrated the critical role of alanine 32 in PilA stability, TFP assembly and retraction.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Revised:
  • Published Online:
Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • National Institutes of Health (NIH) (Award GM54666)
  • NIH (Award 1S10RR23057)
© 2011 SGM
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2011-07-01
2024-04-19
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Alanine 32 in PilA is important for PilA stability and type IV pili function in Myxococcus xanthus
Microbiology 157, 1920 (2011); https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.049684-0
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.049684-0
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.049684-0
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