Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, University College London and Birkbeck, Malet Street, WC1E 7HX London, UK.
Curr Opin Struct Biol. 2012 Aug;22(4):500-6. doi: 10.1016/j.sbi.2012.02.001. Epub 2012 Mar 6.
Pili belong to a broad class of bacterial surface structures that play a key role in infection and pathogenicity. The largest and best characterised pilus biogenesis system--the chaperone-usher pathway--is particularly remarkable in its ability to synthesise and display highly organised structures at the outer membrane without any input from endogenous energy sources. The past few years have heralded exciting new developments in our understanding of the structural biology and mechanism of pilus assembly, which are discussed in this review. Such knowledge will be particularly important in the future, as we approach an era of widespread resistance to common antibiotics and require new targets.
菌毛属于一类在感染和致病性方面发挥关键作用的细菌表面结构。最大和研究最充分的菌毛生物发生系统——伴侣蛋白-usher 途径——在其能够在外膜合成和展示高度组织化结构而无需任何内源性能源输入方面尤为显著。在过去的几年中，我们对菌毛组装的结构生物学和机制的理解取得了令人兴奋的新进展，本文对此进行了讨论。随着我们进入普遍对抗生素产生耐药性的时代并需要新的靶标，这些知识将变得尤为重要。
