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Unveiling the Contributions of Secondary Structure and Disulfide Bonds for Bacterial Adhesion Pili Extension using a Multiscale Approach
Umeå University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Physics.
Umeå University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Physics. (The Biophysics and Biophotonics group)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9835-3263
2021 (English)Conference paper, Poster (with or without abstract) (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Bacterial adhesion pili are essential virulence factors for many pathogenic Escherichia coli, including bacteria that cause urinary tract infections (UPEC) and diarrheal diseases (ETEC). To sustain adhesion under forces similar to those in the fluid environments of the urinary tract and gastrointestinal tract, these pili (also called fimbriae) can extend to over seven times their original length. Both UPEC and ETEC can uncoil their quaternary structure under pulling force and re-coil to their helical form when the force is reduced, as observed using optical tweezers. However, after extension to a linear polymer UPEC undergo an additional reversible conformational change, that is not seen in ETEC. The mechanism for this conformational change in UPEC is not known. Therefore, to obtain a comprehensive picture of pilus extension we have taken a synergistic approach that combines optical tweezer experiments, structural data from cryo-EM, and steered molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the response of pilin subunits to force.

Our multi-faceted approach provides novel molecular-scale insights into the structural changes that occur in UPEC and ETEC pili under pulling forces. We find that the conformational change observed in UPEC pili in optical tweezer experiments is correlated with the presence of an alpha helix. In addition, structural analysis and steered molecular dynamics simulations show that there is a disulfide bond that provides additional stability of UPEC pilin subunits that is not observed in ETEC pilins, which lack cysteine residues. Together, these results suggest that the mechanism of extension of bacterial adhesion pili is related to their environmental niche, and the magnitude of fluid forces in the urinary tract versus the GI tract.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2021. Vol. 120, p. 207-208, article id 3
National Category
Biophysics Other Physics Topics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-181871DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2020.11.1411OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-181871DiVA, id: diva2:1540843
Conference
Biophysical Society Annual Meeting, Virtual, February 22-26, 2021
Note

Supplement 1

1006-Pos

Available from: 2021-03-30 Created: 2021-03-30 Last updated: 2021-03-30Bibliographically approved

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Dahlberg, TobiasAndersson, Magnus

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CiteExportLink to record
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  • apa
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