Nature Communications (Jul 2018)

Mechanical architecture and folding of E. coli type 1 pilus domains

  • Alvaro Alonso-Caballero,
  • Jörg Schönfelder,
  • Simon Poly,
  • Fabiano Corsetti,
  • David De Sancho,
  • Emilio Artacho,
  • Raul Perez-Jimenez

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05107-6
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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The pilus type 1 of uropathogenic E. coli must resist mechanical forces to remain attached to the epithelium. Here the authors use single-molecule force spectroscopy to demonstrate a hierarchy of mechanical stability among the pilus domains and show that the oxidoreductase DsbA also acts as a folding chaperone on the domains.