Structural Biology of the Chaperone-usher Pathway of Pilus Biogenesis

Overview

Journal Nat Rev Microbiol

Specialties Infectious Diseases
Microbiology

Date 2009 Oct 13

PMID 19820722

Citations 157

Authors

Gabriel Waksman

Scott J Hultgren

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The chaperone-usher (CU) pathway of pilus biogenesis is the most widespread of the five pathways that assemble adhesive pili at the surface of Gram-negative bacteria. Recent progress in the study of the structural biology of the CU pathway has unravelled the molecular basis of chaperone function and elucidated the mechanisms of fibre assembly at the outer membrane, leading to a comprehensive description of each step in the biogenesis pathway. Other studies have provided the molecular basis of host recognition by CU pili. The knowledge that has been gathered about both the assembly of and host recognition by CU pili has been harnessed to design promising antibiotic compounds.

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