Department of Structural and Functional Biology, Federico II University, Naples, Italy.
J Bacteriol. 2010 Feb;192(4):949-54. doi: 10.1128/JB.01408-09. Epub 2009 Dec 18.
CotE is a morphogenic protein that controls the assembly of the coat, the proteinaceous structure that surrounds and protects the spore of Bacillus subtilis. CotE has long been thought to interact with several outer coat components, but such interactions were hypothesized from genetic experiment results and have never been directly demonstrated. To study the interaction of CotE with other coat components, we focused our attention on CotC and CotU, two outer coat proteins known to be under CotE control and to form a heterodimer. We report here the results of pull-down experiments that provide the first direct evidence that CotE contacts other coat components. In addition, coexpression experiments demonstrate that CotE is needed and sufficient to allow formation of the CotC-CotU heterodimer in a heterologous host.
CotE 是一种形态发生蛋白,它控制着芽孢杆菌外壳的组装,外壳是包围和保护孢子的蛋白质结构。CotE 长期以来被认为与几种外壳成分相互作用,但这种相互作用是从遗传实验结果中假设的,从未被直接证明过。为了研究 CotE 与其他外壳成分的相互作用,我们将注意力集中在 CotC 和 CotU 上,这两种外壳蛋白已知受 CotE 控制并形成异二聚体。我们在这里报告了下拉实验的结果,这些结果首次直接证明 CotE 与其他外壳成分接触。此外,共表达实验表明,CotE 是形成异源宿主中 CotC-CotU 异二聚体所必需和足够的。