Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) is defined by a characteristic "stacked-brick" aggregative adherence (AA) pattern to cultured cells. In well-studied EAEC prototype strains (called typical EAEC strains), the AA phenotype requires aggregative adherence fimbriae (AAFs). However, previous studies suggest that known AAF alleles are not found in all EAEC strains. To define mechanisms contri...

Gonococcal pilin variation is thought to allow immune evasion and change the adherence properties of the pilus. We have examined the process of pilin antigenic variation in human volunteers inoculated with strain FA1090. Our data show that pilin variation occurred throughout the process of infection, that at each time sampled after inoculation multiple pilin variants were present, and that late...

The hyperthermophilic archaeon Ferroglobus placidus can utilize a wide variety of electron donors, including hydrocarbons and aromatic compounds, with Fe(III) serving as an electron acceptor. In Fe(III)-reducing bacteria that have been studied to date, this process is mediated by c-type cytochromes and type IV pili. However, there currently is little information available about how this process...

The Helicobacter pylori cag pathogenicity island (cag PAI) encodes components of a type IV secretion system (T4SS) involved in host interaction and pathogenicity. Previously, seven cag PAI proteins were identified as homologs of Agrobacterium tumefaciens Vir proteins, which form a paradigm T4SS. The T pilus composed of the processed VirB2 pilin is an external structural part of the A. tumefacie...

Many surface structures in archaea including various types of pili and the archaellum (archaeal flagellum) are homologous to bacterial type IV pili systems (T4P). The T4P consist of multiple proteins, often with poorly conserved sequences, complicating their identification in sequenced genomes. Here we report a comprehensive census of T4P encoded in archaeal genomes using sensitive methods for ...

The structure of the N-terminal-truncated Type IVb structural pilin (t-PilS) from Salmonella typhi was determined by NMR. Although topologically similar to the recently determined x-ray structure of pilin from Vibrio cholerae toxin-coregulated pilus, the only Type IVb pilin with known structure, t-PilS contains many distinct structural features. The protein contains an extra pair of beta-strand...