School of Biology, University of Nottingham, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK.
Mol Microbiol. 2011 Nov;82(4):789-91. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.2011.07860.x. Epub 2011 Oct 12.
Type IV pili are filamentous structures that are found on the surface of many bacterial and archaeal cells, they are involved in cell motility and surface adhesion. In the crenarchaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus, type IV pili formation is strongly induced by UV irradiation and leads to cellular aggregation. The study by Ajon et al. (2011) published in this issue of Molecular Microbiology shows that UV-induced cellular aggregation greatly stimulates the exchange of chromosomal markers among irradiated cells, and that this strategy helps with cell survival. Sulfolobus knockout strains that are incapable of forming pili proved to be deficient in aggregation, and also showed decreased cellular survival after UV irradiation. The UV-induced pili of three different Sulfolobus species had distinct morphologies, and correspondingly these three species were able to aggregate only with their own kind. This work has defined a new role for type IV pili in both the transfer of genes within species and the recovery from UV-induced DNA damage.
IV 型菌毛是存在于许多细菌和古菌细胞表面的丝状结构，它们参与细胞运动和表面黏附。在泉古菌 Sulfolobus solfataricus 中，IV 型菌毛的形成强烈地受到紫外线照射的诱导，导致细胞聚集。Ajon 等人（2011 年）在本期《分子微生物学》上发表的研究表明，紫外线诱导的细胞聚集极大地刺激了被照射细胞之间染色体标记的交换，而这种策略有助于细胞存活。不能形成菌毛的 Sulfolobus 缺失菌株在聚集方面表现出缺陷，并且在紫外线照射后细胞存活率也降低。三种不同 Sulfolobus 物种的紫外线诱导菌毛具有不同的形态，相应地，这三种物种只能与自身种类聚集。这项工作定义了 IV 型菌毛在种内基因转移和从紫外线诱导的 DNA 损伤中恢复方面的新作用。
