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Review
. 2015 Mar 4;5(1):700-15.
doi: 10.3390/life5010700.

Appendages of the cyanobacterial cell

Nils Schuergers  1 , Annegret Wilde  2
Affiliations
Review

Appendages of the cyanobacterial cell

Nils Schuergers et al. Life (Basel). .

Abstract

Extracellular non-flagellar appendages, called pili or fimbriae, are widespread in gram-negative bacteria. They are involved in many different functions, including motility, adhesion, biofilm formation, and uptake of DNA. Sequencing data for a large number of cyanobacterial genomes revealed that most of them contain genes for pili synthesis. However, only for a very few cyanobacteria structure and function of these appendages have been analyzed. Here, we review the structure and function of type IV pili in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 and analyze the distribution of type IV pili associated genes in other cyanobacteria. Further, we discuss the role of the RNA-chaperone Hfq in pilus function and the presence of genes for the chaperone-usher pathway of pilus assembly in cyanobacteria.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Model of type IV pili and their assembly machineries in cyanobacteria. Most cyanobacteria harbor more than one PilA homolog. Their specific functions are unknown so far. (b) Synteny of Synechocystis 6803 gene clusters encoding type IV pili proteins in comparison with similar genes clusters of diverse cyanobacteria. Color-coding of open reading frames refers to the schematic view in (a).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Synteny of gene clusters encoding all the major components of putative CU pili in different cyanobacteria compared to Synechocystis 6803 where the usher homolog is located elsewhere in the genome. All putative CU pili related cyanobacterial gene clusters exhibiting a conserved domain structure (putative subunits PFAM05229; chaperone PFAM00345; usher PFAM00577) are shown. Weak homology is indicated by broken lines.
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