Piepenbrink Kurt H, Sundberg Eric J
Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, U.S.A.
Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, U.S.A.
Biochem Soc Trans. 2016 Dec 15;44(6):1659-1666. doi: 10.1042/BST20160221.
Type IV pili are hair-like bacterial surface appendages that play a role in diverse processes such as cellular adhesion, colonization, twitching motility, biofilm formation, and horizontal gene transfer. These extracellular fibers are composed exclusively or primarily of many copies of one or more pilin proteins, tightly packed in a helix so that the highly hydrophobic amino-terminus of the pilin is buried in the pilus core. Type IV pili have been characterized extensively in Gram-negative bacteria, and recent advances in high-throughput genomic sequencing have revealed that they are also widespread in Gram-positive bacteria. Here, we review the current state of knowledge of type IV pilus systems in Gram-positive bacterial species and discuss them in the broader context of eubacterial type IV pili.
IV型菌毛是细菌表面毛发状的附属结构，在细胞粘附、定植、颤动运动、生物膜形成和水平基因转移等多种过程中发挥作用。这些细胞外纤维完全或主要由一种或多种菌毛蛋白的多个拷贝组成，紧密排列成螺旋状，使得菌毛蛋白高度疏水的氨基末端埋于菌毛核心中。IV型菌毛在革兰氏阴性菌中已得到广泛研究，高通量基因组测序的最新进展表明，它们在革兰氏阳性菌中也广泛存在。在此，我们综述革兰氏阳性菌中IV型菌毛系统的当前知识状态，并在真细菌IV型菌毛的更广泛背景下进行讨论。
