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Volume 153, Issue 3

Type I and type IV pili of affect twitching motility, biofilm formation and cell–cell aggregation Free

Abstract

, an important phytopathogenic bacterium, causes serious plant diseases including Pierce's disease of grapevine. It is reported here that type I and type IV pili of play different roles in twitching motility, biofilm formation and cell–cell aggregation. Type I pili are particularly important for biofilm formation and aggregation, whereas type IV pili are essential for motility, and also function in biofilm formation. Thirty twitching-defective mutants were generated with an EZ : : TN transposome system, and several type-IV-pilus-associated genes were identified, including , , , and . Mutations in , , or resulted in a twitch-minus phenotype, whereas the mutant was twitching reduced. A mutation in resulted in a biofilm-defective and twitching-enhanced phenotype. A double mutant was twitch minus, and produced almost no visible biofilm. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that the pili, when present, were localized to one pole of the cell. Both type I and type IV pili were present in the wild-type isolate and the mutant, whereas only type I pili were present in the twitch-minus mutants. The mutant produced no type I pili. The double mutant produced neither type I nor type IV pili.

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2007-03-01
2024-04-19
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Type I and type IV pili of Xylella fastidiosa affect twitching motility, biofilm formation and cell–cell aggregation
Microbiology 153, 719 (2007); https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.2006/002311-0
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.2006/002311-0
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.2006/002311-0
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