What is it about?
Type 4 pili (T4P) are filaments composed of pilin subunits – one major and several minor pilins – widespread in prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea). This complexity makes it difficult to understand the respective roles of these subunits in T4P synthesis and the many functions T4P confer to the cells expressing them. We have used the simplicity of Streptococcus sanguinis – a new T4P model – to characterize the role of its five pilin subunits in detail.
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Why is it important?
By providing an integrated view of the role of all the T4P pilin subunits in a model species, this paper has important implications for the rational design of drugs targeting T4P, which are one of the most widespread virulence factors in pathogenic bacteria. It also has wider implications for a large family of filamentous nanomachines related to T4P, which are ubiquitous in prokaryotes where they play an essential ecological role.
Perspectives
Less than seven years after publishing that S. sanguinis expresses T4P, this paper confirms our adventurous prediction that this new model species might "improve our fragmentary understanding of a fascinating and widespread class of prokaryotic filamentous nanomachines".
Vladimir Pelicic
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Characterization of a glycan-binding complex of minor pilins completes the analysis of
Streptococcus sanguinis
type 4 pili subunits, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, January 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2216237120.
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