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- Title
CryoEM reveals the structure of an archaeal pilus involved in twitching motility.
- Authors
Gaines, Matthew C.; Sivabalasarma, Shamphavi; Isupov, Michail N.; Haque, Risat Ul; McLaren, Mathew; Hanus, Cyril; Gold, Vicki A. M.; Albers, Sonja-Verena; Daum, Bertram
- Abstract
Amongst the major types of archaeal filaments, several have been shown to closely resemble bacterial homologues of the Type IV pili (T4P). Within Sulfolobales, member species encode for three types of T4P, namely the archaellum, the UV-inducible pilus system (Ups) and the archaeal adhesive pilus (Aap). Whereas the archaellum functions primarily in swimming motility, and the Ups in UV-induced cell aggregation and DNA-exchange, the Aap plays an important role in adhesion and twitching motility. Here, we present a cryoEM structure of the Aap of the archaeal model organism Sulfolobus acidocaldarius. We identify the component subunit as AapB and find that while its structure follows the canonical T4P blueprint, it adopts three distinct conformations within the pilus. The tri-conformer Aap structure that we describe challenges our current understanding of pilus structure and sheds new light on the principles of twitching motility. The cells of many archaeal species display surface appendages that closely resemble bacterial Type IV pili (T4P). Here, Gaines et al. present a cryoEM structure of the archaeal adhesive pilus from Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, showing that the structure of the component subunit follows the canonical T4P blueprint but adopts three distinct conformations within the pilus.
- Subjects
CELL aggregation; FIBERS; CRYOPROTECTIVE agents; ADHESIVES; ULTRAVIOLET radiation
- Publication
Nature Communications, 2024, Vol 15, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
2041-1723
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/s41467-024-45831-w