Nucleator-dependent intercellular assembly of adhesive curli organelles in Escherichia coli

摘要

Bacterial adhesion to other bacteria, to eu- karyotic cells, and to extracellular matrix proteins is fre- quently mediated by cell surface-associated polymers (fim- briae) consisting of one or more subunit proteins. We have found that polymerization of curlin to fimbriae-like structures (curli) on the surface of Escherichia coli markedly differs from the prevailing model for fimbrial assembly in that it occurs extracellularly through a self-assembly process depending on a specific nucleator protein.