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PMID: 12065533 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Modification of type IV pilus-associated epithelial cell adherence and multicellular behavior by the PilU protein of Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

Infection and immunity ·Vol. 70 ·No. 7 ·2002-07-00 ·Pages 3891-903

Park HS, Wolfgang M, Koomey M

Abstract

Expression of type IV pili (Tfp) correlates with the ability of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to colonize the human host, as well as with adherence to human epithelial tissue, twitching motility, competence for natural transformation, and autoagglutination. N. gonorrhoeae PilF (required for Tfp biogenesis) and PilT (required for twitching motility and transformation) share significant identities with members of a family of putative ATPases involved in membrane trafficking of macromolecules. An open reading frame downstream of the pilT locus encoding a 408-amino-acid protein with 33% identity with the gonococcal PilT protein and 45% identity with the PilU protein in Pseudomonas aeruginosa was characterized, and the corresponding gene was designated pilU. Unlike N. gonorrhoeae pilT mutants, pilU mutants express twitching motility and are competent for DNA transformation. However, loss-of-function mutations in pilU increased bacterial adherence to ME-180 human epithelial cells eightfold and disrupted in vitro Tfp-associated autoagglutination. Comparative alignment of N. gonorrhoeae PilU with other members of the TrbB-like family of traffic ATPases revealed a conserved carboxy-terminal domain unique to family members which are not essential for Tfp biogenesis but which specifically modify Tfp-associated phenotypes. Studies of the pilT-pilU locus by using Northern blotting, transcriptional fusions, and reverse transcription-PCR showed that the two genes encoding closely related proteins with dissimilar effects on Tfp phenotypes are transcribed from a single promoter.

MeSH Terms
Adenosine Triphosphatases Alleles Amino Acid Sequence Bacterial Adhesion/physiology Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins/genetics,physiology Bacterial Proteins/genetics Base Sequence DNA Primers Epithelial Cells/microbiology Fimbriae Proteins Fimbriae, Bacterial Gene Expression Genes, Bacterial Humans Molecular Motor Proteins Molecular Sequence Data Mutagenesis Neisseria gonorrhoeae/genetics,physiology Sequence Homology, Amino Acid Transcription, Genetic Tumor Cells, Cultured
Chemicals
Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins Bacterial Proteins DNA Primers Molecular Motor Proteins PilU protein, Neisseria gonorrhoeae trbB protein, Salmonella typhimurium Fimbriae Proteins Adenosine Triphosphatases
Authors & Affiliations
3 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Park Hae-Sun Moon
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.
Wolfgang Matthew
Koomey Michael
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Article Info
Journal
Infection and immunity
Abbr.
Infect Immun
ISSN
0019-9567
DOI
10.1128/IAI.70.7.3891-3903.2002
Published
2002-07-00
Pages
3891-903
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
0246127
PMCID
PMC128069
Subset
IM
Grants
NIGMS NIH HHS · T32 GM007315 · United States
NIGMS NIH HHS · 2 T32 GM07315 · United States
NIAID NIH HHS · AI 27837 · United States
Databases
GENBANK
S72391
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1128/IAI.70.7.3891-3903.2002 PMC Full Text View journal details
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