The product of the virB4 gene of Agrobacterium tumefaciens promotes accumulation of VirB3 protein.

The process of T-DNA transfer from Agrobacterium tumefaciens to plant cells is thought to involve passage of a DNA-protein complex through a specialized structure in the bacterial membrane. The virB operon of A. tumefaciens encodes 11 proteins, of which 9 are known to be located in the membranes and 10 have been shown to be essential for virulence. Sequence comparisons between proteins encoded by the virB operon and those encoded by operons from conjugative plasmids indicated that VirB proteins may form a structure similar to a conjugative pilus. Here, we examine the effects of mutations in virB4 on the accumulation and localization of other VirB proteins. VirB4 shares amino acid sequence similarity with the TraC protein of plasmid F, which is essential for pilus formation in Escherichia coli, and with the PtlC protein of Bordetella pertussis, which is required for toxin secretion. Polar and nonpolar virB4 mutants were examined, and all were shown to be unable to accumulate VirB3 protein to wild-type levels. A low level of VirB3 protein which was present in induced NT1RE cells harboring virB4 nonpolar mutant pBM1130 was found to associate with the inner membrane fraction only, whereas in wild-type cells VirB3 associated with both inner and outer membranes. The results indicate that for VirB3 to accumulate in the outer membrane, VirB4 must also be present, and it is possible that one role of VirB4 is in the correct assembly of a VirB protein membrane structure.