Uptake of extracellular DNA: Competence induced pili in natural transformation of Streptococcus pneumoniae |
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Authors: | Sandra Muschiol Murat Balaban Staffan Normark Birgitta Henriques‐Normark |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden;2. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Division of Clinical Microbiology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden;3. Nanotechnology Research and Application Center, Sabanci University, Tuzla, Istanbul, Turkey |
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Abstract: | Transport of DNA across bacterial membranes involves complex DNA uptake systems. In Gram‐positive bacteria, the DNA uptake machinery shares fundamental similarities with type IV pili and type II secretion systems. Although dedicated pilus structures, such as type IV pili in Gram‐negative bacteria, are necessary for efficient DNA uptake, the role of similar structures in Gram‐positive bacteria is just beginning to emerge. Recently two essentially very different pilus structures composed of the same major pilin protein ComGC were proposed to be involved in transformation of the Gram‐positive bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae – one is a long, thin, type IV pilus‐like fiber with DNA binding capacity and the other one is a pilus structure that was thicker, much shorter and not able to bind DNA. Here we discuss how competence induced pili, either by pilus retraction or by a transient pilus‐related opening in the cell wall, may mediate DNA uptake in S. pneumoniae. |
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Keywords: | competence pilus pneumococci Streptococcus pneumoniae transformation |
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