PilY1 and minor pilins form a complex priming the type IVa pilus in Myxococcus xanthus

Anke Treuner-Lange, Yi-Wei Chang, Timo Glatter, Marco Herfurth, Steffi Lindow, Georges Chreifi, Grant J. Jensen and Lotte Søgaard-Andersen ()
Additional contact information
Anke Treuner-Lange: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology
Yi-Wei Chang: California Institute of Technology
Timo Glatter: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology
Marco Herfurth: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology
Steffi Lindow: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology
Georges Chreifi: California Institute of Technology
Grant J. Jensen: California Institute of Technology
Lotte Søgaard-Andersen: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: Abstract Type IVa pili are ubiquitous and versatile bacterial cell surface filaments that undergo cycles of extension, adhesion and retraction powered by the cell-envelope spanning type IVa pilus machine (T4aPM). The overall architecture of the T4aPM and the location of 10 conserved core proteins within this architecture have been elucidated. Here, using genetics, cell biology, proteomics and cryo-electron tomography, we demonstrate that the PilY1 protein and four minor pilins, which are widely conserved in T4aP systems, are essential for pilus extension in Myxococcus xanthus and form a complex that is an integral part of the T4aPM. Moreover, these proteins are part of the extended pilus. Our data support a model whereby the PilY1/minor pilin complex functions as a priming complex in T4aPM for pilus extension, a tip complex in the extended pilus for adhesion, and a cork for terminating retraction to maintain a priming complex for the next round of extension.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18803-z Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-18803-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18803-z

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().