Journal Of Bacteriology,

Abstract

this report, we show that PilA does not regulate transcription of a pilE-lacZ fusion in E. coli, regardless of the conditions used. We present evidence to suggest that PilA plays a role in protein maturation. We show that overproduction of PilA in E. coli causes the accumulation of a presecretory protein and that this accumulation appears to be independent of SecY. We also demonstrate that pilA can complement an ftsY conditional mutation in E. coli and restore normal growth to this strain under nonpermissive conditions and that a PilA mutant defective in GTPase activity can no longer perform this function. Finally, we show that PilA can partially replace FtsY in an in vitro translocation assay. We conclude from these data that PilA is the gonococcal Fts