Biomaterial Database

Purification and characterization of Serratia marcescens US5 pili. 1984

K Kohno, and T Yamamoto, and A Kuroiwa, and K Amako

The pili of Serratia marcescens US5 isolated from a patient with urinary tract infection were purified and characterized. During the aeration culture, the pili were detached from the bacteria and were precipitated by the addition of ammonium sulfate. The purification of the pili was carried out by ion-exchange chromatography and gel filtration on Sepharose 4B. In electron microscopy, the purified pilus showed a filament of 3 nm in diameter and 0.3 micron in average length. The molecular weight of the protein subunit of the purified pili was determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Two protein bands appeared. One has a molecular size of 19,000 daltons, and the other has a molecular size of 39,000 daltons. The isoelectric point was 3.7. The content of hydrophobic amino acids in purified pili subunits was 42% of the total amino acid content. Further purification of pili by isopycnic centrifugation failed to remove the large protein band. No identical protein bands to pili proteins were detected in the electrophoresis pattern of the outer membrane proteins extracted from S. marcescens US5 in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. These two proteins might be a dimer of a small molecule. A survey of clinically isolated strains of S. marcescens revealed that more than 60% of the strains had this type of pili. These results suggest that these pili are widely distributed among strains of S. marcescens.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008970	Molecular Weight	The sum of the weight of all the atoms in a molecule.	Molecular Weights,Weight, Molecular,Weights, Molecular
D010861	Fimbriae, Bacterial	Thin, hairlike appendages, 1 to 20 microns in length and often occurring in large numbers, present on the cells of gram-negative bacteria, particularly Enterobacteriaceae and Neisseria. Unlike flagella, they do not possess motility, but being protein (pilin) in nature, they possess antigenic and hemagglutinating properties. They are of medical importance because some fimbriae mediate the attachment of bacteria to cells via adhesins (ADHESINS, BACTERIAL). Bacterial fimbriae refer to common pili, to be distinguished from the preferred use of "pili", which is confined to sex pili (PILI, SEX).	Bacterial Fimbriae,Bacterial Pili,Common Fimbriae,Common Pili,Pili, Bacterial,Pili, Common,Bacterial Fimbria,Bacterial Pilus,Common Fimbria,Common Pilus,Fimbria, Bacterial,Pilus, Bacterial,Fimbria, Common,Fimbriae, Common,Pilus, Common
D002458	Cell Fractionation	Techniques to partition various components of the cell into SUBCELLULAR FRACTIONS.	Cell Fractionations,Fractionation, Cell,Fractionations, Cell
D000371	Agglutination	The clumping together of suspended material resulting from the action of AGGLUTININS.
D000939	Epitopes	Sites on an antigen that interact with specific antibodies.	Antigenic Determinant,Antigenic Determinants,Antigenic Specificity,Epitope,Determinant, Antigenic,Determinants, Antigenic,Specificity, Antigenic
D001425	Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins	Proteins isolated from the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria.	OMP Proteins,Outer Membrane Proteins, Bacterial,Outer Membrane Lipoproteins, Bacterial
D001426	Bacterial Proteins	Proteins found in any species of bacterium.	Bacterial Gene Products,Bacterial Gene Proteins,Gene Products, Bacterial,Bacterial Gene Product,Bacterial Gene Protein,Bacterial Protein,Gene Product, Bacterial,Gene Protein, Bacterial,Gene Proteins, Bacterial,Protein, Bacterial,Proteins, Bacterial
D012706	Serratia marcescens	A species of gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped bacteria found in soil, water, food, and clinical specimens. It is a prominent opportunistic pathogen for hospitalized patients.