Structural and Functional Insights into the Pilotin-Secretin Complex of the Type II Secretion System

Gram-negative bacteria secrete virulence factors and assemble fibre structures on their cell surface using specialized secretion systems. Three of these, T2SS, T3SS and T4PS, are characterized by large outer membrane channels formed by proteins called secretins. Usually, a cognate lipoprotein pilot...

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Main Authors: Gu, Shuang, Rehman, Saima, Wang, Xiaohui, Shevchik, Vladimir E., Pickersgill, Richard W.
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science 2012
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3276575/
id pubmed-3276575
recordtype oai_dc
spelling pubmed-32765752012-02-15 Structural and Functional Insights into the Pilotin-Secretin Complex of the Type II Secretion System Gu, Shuang Rehman, Saima Wang, Xiaohui Shevchik, Vladimir E. Pickersgill, Richard W. Research Article Gram-negative bacteria secrete virulence factors and assemble fibre structures on their cell surface using specialized secretion systems. Three of these, T2SS, T3SS and T4PS, are characterized by large outer membrane channels formed by proteins called secretins. Usually, a cognate lipoprotein pilot is essential for the assembly of the secretin in the outer membrane. The structures of the pilotins of the T3SS and T4PS have been described. However in the T2SS, the molecular mechanism of this process is poorly understood and its structural basis is unknown. Here we report the crystal structure of the pilotin of the T2SS that comprises an arrangement of four α-helices profoundly different from previously solved pilotins from the T3SS and T4P and known four α-helix bundles. The architecture can be described as the insertion of one α-helical hairpin into a second open α-helical hairpin with bent final helix. NMR, CD and fluorescence spectroscopy show that the pilotin binds tightly to 18 residues close to the C-terminus of the secretin. These residues, unstructured before binding to the pilotin, become helical on binding. Data collected from crystals of the complex suggests how the secretin peptide binds to the pilotin and further experiments confirm the importance of these C-terminal residues in vivo. Public Library of Science 2012-02-09 /pmc/articles/PMC3276575/ /pubmed/22346756 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1002531 Text en Gu et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
repository_type Open Access Journal
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building NCBI PubMed
collection Online Access
language English
format Online
author Gu, Shuang
Rehman, Saima
Wang, Xiaohui
Shevchik, Vladimir E.
Pickersgill, Richard W.
spellingShingle Gu, Shuang
Rehman, Saima
Wang, Xiaohui
Shevchik, Vladimir E.
Pickersgill, Richard W.
Structural and Functional Insights into the Pilotin-Secretin Complex of the Type II Secretion System
author_facet Gu, Shuang
Rehman, Saima
Wang, Xiaohui
Shevchik, Vladimir E.
Pickersgill, Richard W.
author_sort Gu, Shuang
title Structural and Functional Insights into the Pilotin-Secretin Complex of the Type II Secretion System
title_short Structural and Functional Insights into the Pilotin-Secretin Complex of the Type II Secretion System
title_full Structural and Functional Insights into the Pilotin-Secretin Complex of the Type II Secretion System
title_fullStr Structural and Functional Insights into the Pilotin-Secretin Complex of the Type II Secretion System
title_full_unstemmed Structural and Functional Insights into the Pilotin-Secretin Complex of the Type II Secretion System
title_sort structural and functional insights into the pilotin-secretin complex of the type ii secretion system
description Gram-negative bacteria secrete virulence factors and assemble fibre structures on their cell surface using specialized secretion systems. Three of these, T2SS, T3SS and T4PS, are characterized by large outer membrane channels formed by proteins called secretins. Usually, a cognate lipoprotein pilot is essential for the assembly of the secretin in the outer membrane. The structures of the pilotins of the T3SS and T4PS have been described. However in the T2SS, the molecular mechanism of this process is poorly understood and its structural basis is unknown. Here we report the crystal structure of the pilotin of the T2SS that comprises an arrangement of four α-helices profoundly different from previously solved pilotins from the T3SS and T4P and known four α-helix bundles. The architecture can be described as the insertion of one α-helical hairpin into a second open α-helical hairpin with bent final helix. NMR, CD and fluorescence spectroscopy show that the pilotin binds tightly to 18 residues close to the C-terminus of the secretin. These residues, unstructured before binding to the pilotin, become helical on binding. Data collected from crystals of the complex suggests how the secretin peptide binds to the pilotin and further experiments confirm the importance of these C-terminal residues in vivo.
publisher Public Library of Science
publishDate 2012
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3276575/
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