Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Kang HJ
PROVIDER: S-EPMC2761350 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Kang Hae Joo HJ Paterson Neil G NG Gaspar Andrew H AH Ton-That Hung H Baker Edward N EN
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20090921 40
Cell-surface pili are important virulence factors that enable bacterial pathogens to adhere to specific host tissues and modulate host immune response. Relatively little is known about the structure of Gram-positive bacterial pili, which are built by the sortase-catalyzed covalent crosslinking of individual pilin proteins. Here we report the 1.6-A resolution crystal structure of the shaft pilin component SpaA from Corynebacterium diphtheriae, revealing both common and unique features. The SpaA p ...[more]