A noticeable genomic feature of many piliated Gram-positive bacterial species is the presence of more than one pilus-encoding operon. Paradigmatically, the gut-adapted Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG strain contains two different fimbrial operons in its genome. However, whereas one of these operons (called spaCBA) is encoding for the functionally mucus-/collagen-binding SpaCBA pilus, for the other o...

The assembly of pili on the cell wall of Gram-positive bacteria requires transpeptidase enzymes called sortases. In Streptococcus agalactiae, the PI-1 pilus island of strain 2603V/R encodes two pilus-specific sortases (SrtC1 and SrtC2) and three pilins (GBS80, GBS52 and GBS104). Although either pilus-specific sortase is sufficient for the polymerization of the major pilin, GBS80, incorporation ...

UNLABELLED Pilus operons encode a pivotal host-microbe interaction structure that is vital for pathogenicity, colonization and adhesion. LOCP is a computational tool to quickly test whether or not the genome of a gram-positive bacterium of interest or some DNA-contig in a metagenomic sample hold pilus operons. Predictions are made based on distinctive motifs of pilus-related protein sequences a...

Type IV pili are an efficient and versatile device for bacterial surface motility. They are widespread among the beta-, gamma-, and delta-proteobacteria and the cyanobacteria. Within that diversity, there is a core of conserved proteins that includes the pilin (PilA), the motors PilB and PilT, and various components of pilus biogenesis and assembly, PilC, PilD, PilM, PilN, PilO, PilP, and PilQ....

We isolated the genetic determinant of AF/R1 pilus production in attaching/effacing Escherichia coli RDEC-1 and identified seven genes required for pilus expression and function. DNA sequence analysis of the structural subunit gene afrA corrected an error in the published sequence and extended homology with the F18 pilus subunit of pig edema E. coli strains. AfrB and AfrC, encoded downstream fr...

BACKGROUND Pili in Streptococcus pneumoniae have been shown to be one of the adherence factors for epithelial cells in the human upper respiratory tract. Two types of pilus-like structures (pilus islet-1 and pilus islet-2) have been distinguished in S. pneumoniae. OBJECTIVES To investigate the presence of pilus islet-1 (PI-1) in S. pneumoniae and the correlation between our isolates. MATERI...

Burkholderia cenocepacia has emerged as an important pathogen for patients suffering from cystic fibrosis (CF). Previous work has shown that this organism employs the CepIR quorum-sensing (QS) system to control the expression of virulence factors as well as the formation of biofilms. To date, however, very little is known about the QS-regulated virulence factors and virtually nothing about the ...

Citation: Pietrocola G, Arciola CR, Rindi S, Montanaro L and Speziale P (2018) Streptococcus agalactiae Non-Pilus, Cell Wall-Anchored Proteins: Involvement in Colonization and Pathogenesis and Potential as Vaccine Candidates. Front. Immunol. 9:602. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.00602 Streptococcus agalactiae Non-Pilus, Cell wall-Anchored Proteins: involvement in Colonization and Pathogenesis and Pote...

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) is a known causative agent of diarrhea in children. In the process of colonization of the small intestine, EPEC synthesizes two types of adhesins, the bundle-forming pilus (BFP) and intimin. The BFP pilus is an adhesin associated with the initial stages of adherence of EPEC to epithelial cells, while the outer membrane protein intimin carries out the int...