Pilus chaperones represent a new type of protein-folding catalyst

Michael Vetsch, Chasper Puorger, Thomas Spirig, Ulla Grauschopf, Eilika U. Weber-Ban and Rudi Glockshuber ()
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Michael Vetsch: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Hönggerberg
Chasper Puorger: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Hönggerberg
Thomas Spirig: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Hönggerberg
Ulla Grauschopf: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Hönggerberg
Eilika U. Weber-Ban: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Hönggerberg
Rudi Glockshuber: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Hönggerberg

Nature, 2004, vol. 431, issue 7006, 329-333

Abstract: Abstract Adhesive type 1 pili from uropathogenic Escherichia coli strains have a crucial role during infection by mediating the attachment to and potentially the invasion of host tissue. These filamentous, highly oligomeric protein complexes are assembled by the ‘chaperone–usher’ pathway1, in which the individual pilus subunits fold in the bacterial periplasm and form stoichiometric complexes with a periplasmic chaperone molecule that is essential for pilus assembly2,3,4. The chaperone subsequently delivers the subunits to an assembly platform (usher) in the outer membrane, which mediates subunit assembly and translocation to the cell surface5,6,7,8. Here we show that the periplasmic type 1 pilus chaperone FimC binds non-native pilus subunits and accelerates folding of the subunit FimG by 100-fold. Moreover, we find that the FimC–FimG complex is formed quantitatively and very rapidly when folding of FimG is initiated in the presence of both FimC and the assembly-competent subunit FimF, even though the FimC–FimG complex is thermodynamically less stable than the FimF–FimG complex. FimC thus represents a previously unknown type of protein-folding catalyst, and simultaneously acts as a kinetic trap preventing spontaneous subunit assembly in the periplasm.

Date: 2004
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DOI: 10.1038/nature02891

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