DOI: 10.1128/aem.68.2.745-755.2002. Molecular Analyses of the Natural Transformation Machinery and Identification of Pilus Structures in the Extremely Thermophilic Bacterium <i>Thermus thermophilus</i> Strain HB27

Molecular Analyses of the Natural Transformation Machinery and Identification of Pilus Structures in the Extremely Thermophilic Bacterium Thermus thermophilus Strain HB27

10.1128/aem.68.2.745-755.2002

Crossref journal-article

American Society for Microbiology

Applied and Environmental Microbiology (235)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Thermus thermophilus HB27, an extremely thermophilic bacterium, exhibits high competence for natural transformation. To identify genes of the natural transformation machinery of T. thermophilus HB27, we performed homology searches in the partially completed T. thermophilus genomic sequence for conserved competence genes. These analyses resulted in the detection of 28 open reading frames (ORFs) exhibiting significant similarities to known competence proteins of gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. Disruption of 15 selected potential competence genes led to the identification of 8 noncompetent mutants and one transformation-deficient mutant with a 100-fold reduced transformation frequency. One competence protein is similar to DprA of Haemophilus influenzae , seven are similar to type IV pilus proteins of Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Neisseria gonorrhoeae (PilM, PilN, PilO, PilQ, PilF, PilC, PilD), and another deduced protein (PilW) is similar to a protein of unknown function in Deinococcus radiodurans R1. Analysis of the piliation phenotype of T. thermophilus HB27 revealed the presence of single pilus structures on the surface of the wild-type cells, whereas the noncompetent pil mutants of Thermus , with the exception of the pilF mutant, were devoid of pilus structures. These results suggest that pili and natural transformation in T. thermophilus HB27 are functionally linked.

Bibliography

Friedrich, A., Prust, C., Hartsch, T., Henne, A., & Averhoff, B. (2002). Molecular Analyses of the Natural Transformation Machinery and Identification of Pilus Structures in the Extremely Thermophilic Bacterium Thermus thermophilus Strain HB27. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 68(2), 745â755.

Authors 5

Alexandra Friedrich (first)
Christina Prust (additional)
Thomas Hartsch (additional)
Anke Henne (additional)
Beate Averhoff (additional)

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Dates

Type	When
Created	22 years, 6 months ago (Feb. 26, 2003, 10:22 a.m.)
Deposited	3 years, 6 months ago (Feb. 22, 2022, 9:02 p.m.)
Indexed	2 months, 1 week ago (June 27, 2025, 6:13 a.m.)
Issued	23 years, 7 months ago (Feb. 1, 2002)
Published	23 years, 7 months ago (Feb. 1, 2002)
Published Print	23 years, 7 months ago (Feb. 1, 2002)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Friedrich_2002, title={Molecular Analyses of the Natural Transformation Machinery and Identification of Pilus Structures in the Extremely Thermophilic Bacterium Thermus thermophilus Strain HB27}, volume={68}, ISSN={1098-5336}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/aem.68.2.745-755.2002}, DOI={10.1128/aem.68.2.745-755.2002}, number={2}, journal={Applied and Environmental Microbiology}, publisher={American Society for Microbiology}, author={Friedrich, Alexandra and Prust, Christina and Hartsch, Thomas and Henne, Anke and Averhoff, Beate}, year={2002}, month=feb, pages={745–755} }

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