Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38001074›Full record

ArticleNature communications2023

Stochastic chain termination in bacterial pilus assembly.

Christoph Giese, Chasper Puorger, Oleksandr Ignatov, Zuzana Bečárová, Marco E Weber, Martin A Schärer, Guido Capitani, Rudi Glockshuber

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
0.9field-weighted citation impact, top 24% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. FimC binds to the promoter region ofFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2025
    Article
  3. Structural basis for adhesin secretion by the outer-membrane usher in type 1 pili.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024
    Article
  4. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Christoph GieseInstitute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Department of Biology, ETH Zurich, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland. giesec@mol.biol.ethz.ch.ORCID 0000-0001-9875-9629
Chasper PuorgerInstitute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Department of Biology, ETH Zurich, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland.
Oleksandr IgnatovInstitute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Department of Biology, ETH Zurich, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland.ORCID 0009-0000-0107-6478
Zuzana BečárováInstitute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Department of Biology, ETH Zurich, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland.
Marco E WeberInstitute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Department of Biology, ETH Zurich, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland.
Martin A SchärerInstitute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Department of Biology, ETH Zurich, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland.
Guido CapitaniLaboratory of Biomolecular Research, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232, Villigen, Switzerland.
Rudi GlockshuberInstitute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Department of Biology, ETH Zurich, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0003-3320-3843
ETH Zurich · CHPaul Scherrer Institute · CHFHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts · CH

Funding

Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (Swiss National Science Foundation) 310030B_176403/1Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (Swiss National Science Foundation) 31003A_156304
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Adhesive type 1 pili from uropathogenic Escherichia coli strains are filamentous, supramolecular protein complexes consisting of a short tip fibrillum and a long, helical rod formed by up to several thousand copies of the major pilus subunit FimA. Here, we reconstituted the entire type 1 pilus rod assembly reaction in vitro, using all constituent protein subunits in the presence of the assembly platform FimD, and identified the so-far uncharacterized subunit FimI as an irreversible assembly terminator. We provide a complete, quantitative model of pilus rod assembly kinetics based on the measured rate constants of FimD-catalyzed subunit incorporation. The model reliably predicts the length distribution of assembled pilus rods as a function of the ratio between FimI and the main pilus subunit FimA and is fully consistent with the length distribution of membrane-anchored pili assembled in vivo. The results show that the natural length distribution of adhesive pili formed via the chaperone-usher pathway results from a stochastic chain termination reaction. In addition, we demonstrate that FimI contributes to anchoring the pilus to the outer membrane and report the crystal structures of (i) FimI in complex with the assembly chaperone FimC, (ii) the FimI-FimC complex bound to the N-terminal domain of FimD, and (iii) a ternary complex between FimI, FimA and FimC that provides structural insights on pilus assembly termination and pilus anchoring by FimI.

Indexed as

Escherichia coli ProteinsFimbriae, BacterialEscherichia coliFimbriae ProteinsMolecular ChaperonesEscherichia coli ProteinsFimbriae ProteinsMolecular Chaperones

Identifiers

PMID38001074
PMCPMC10673952
OpenAlexW4388978065

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.