Dataset Information

Pilin-like proteins in the extremely thermophilic bacterium Thermus thermophilus HB27: implication in competence for natural transformation and links to type IV pilus biogenesis.

ABSTRACT: The extreme thermophile Thermus thermophilus HB27 exhibits high frequencies of natural transformation. Although we recently reported identification of the first competence genes in Thermus, the molecular basis of DNA uptake is unknown. A pilus-like structure is assumed to be involved. Twelve genes encoding prepilin-like proteins were identified in three loci in the genome of T. thermophilus. Mutational analyses, described in this paper, revealed that one locus, which contains four genes that encode prepilin-like proteins (pilA1 to pilA4), is essential for natural transformation. Additionally, comZ, a new competence gene with no similarity to known genes, was identified. Analysis of the piliation phenotype revealed wild-type piliation of a pilA1-pilA3Deltakat mutant and a comZ mutant, whereas a pilA4 mutant was found to be completely devoid of pilus structures. These findings, together with the significant similarity of PilA4 to prepilins, led to the conclusion that the T. thermophilus pilus structures are type IV pili. Furthermore, the loss of the transformation and piliation phenotype in the pilA4 mutant suggests that type IV pili are implicated in natural transformation of T. thermophilus HB27.

SUBMITTER: Friedrich A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC165207 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Pilin-like proteins in the extremely thermophilic bacterium Thermus thermophilus HB27: implication in competence for natural transformation and links to type IV pilus biogenesis.

Friedrich Alexandra A Rumszauer Judit J Henne Anke A Averhoff Beate B

Applied and environmental microbiology 20030701 7

The extreme thermophile Thermus thermophilus HB27 exhibits high frequencies of natural transformation. Although we recently reported identification of the first competence genes in Thermus, the molecular basis of DNA uptake is unknown. A pilus-like structure is assumed to be involved. Twelve genes encoding prepilin-like proteins were identified in three loci in the genome of T. thermophilus. Mutational analyses, described in this paper, revealed that one locus, which contains four genes that enc ...[more]

PMID: 12839734

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Project description:BackgroundThermus thermophilus, an extremely thermophilic bacterium, has been widely recognized as a model organism for studying how microbes can survive and adapt under high temperature environment. However, the thermotolerant mechanisms and cellular metabolism still remains mostly unravelled. Thus, it is highly required to consider systems biological approaches where T. thermophilus metabolic network model can be employed together with high throughput experimental data for elucidating its physiological characteristics under such harsh conditions.ResultsWe reconstructed a genome-scale metabolic model of T. thermophilus, iTT548, the first ever large-scale network of a thermophilic bacterium, accounting for 548 unique genes, 796 reactions and 635 unique metabolites. Our initial comparative analysis of the model with Escherichia coli has revealed several distinctive metabolic reactions, mainly in amino acid metabolism and carotenoid biosynthesis, producing relevant compounds to retain the cellular membrane for withstanding high temperature. Constraints-based flux analysis was, then, applied to simulate the metabolic state in glucose minimal and amino acid rich media. Remarkably, resulting growth predictions were highly consistent with the experimental observations. The subsequent comparative flux analysis under different environmental conditions highlighted that the cells consumed branched chain amino acids preferably and utilized them directly in the relevant anabolic pathways for the fatty acid synthesis. Finally, gene essentiality study was also conducted via single gene deletion analysis, to identify the conditional essential genes in glucose minimal and complex media.ConclusionsThe reconstructed genome-scale metabolic model elucidates the phenotypes of T. thermophilus, thus allowing us to gain valuable insights into its cellular metabolism through in silico simulations. The information obtained from such analysis would not only shed light on the understanding of physiology of thermophiles but also helps us to devise metabolic engineering strategies to develop T. thermophilus as a thermostable microbial cell factory.

Dataset Information

Pilin-like proteins in the extremely thermophilic bacterium Thermus thermophilus HB27: implication in competence for natural transformation and links to type IV pilus biogenesis.

Publications

Pilin-like proteins in the extremely thermophilic bacterium Thermus thermophilus HB27: implication in competence for natural transformation and links to type IV pilus biogenesis.

Similar Datasets

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