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Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, December 2007, p. 551-575, Vol. 71, No. 4
1092-2172/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/MMBR.00014-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Evolution of the Chaperone/Usher Assembly Pathway: Fimbrial Classification Goes Greek{dagger}

Sean-Paul Nuccio and Andreas J. Bäumler*

Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of California at Davis, One Shields Ave., Davis, California 95616-8645

Summary: Many Proteobacteria use the chaperone/usher pathway to assemble proteinaceous filaments on the bacterial surface. These filaments can curl into fimbrial or nonfimbrial surface structures (e.g., a capsule or spore coat). This article reviews the phylogeny of operons belonging to the chaperone/usher assembly class to explore the utility of establishing a scheme for subdividing them into clades of phylogenetically related gene clusters. Based on usher amino acid sequence comparisons, our analysis shows that the chaperone/usher assembly class is subdivided into six major phylogenetic clades, which we have termed {alpha}-, β-, {gamma}-, {kappa}-, {pi}-, and {sigma}-fimbriae. Members of each clade share related operon structures and encode fimbrial subunits with similar protein domains. The proposed classification system offers a simple and convenient method for assigning newly discovered chaperone/usher systems to one of the six major phylogenetic groups.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of California at Davis, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616-8645. Phone: (530) 754-7225. Fax: (530) 754-7240. E-mail: ajbaumler{at}ucdavis.edu

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://mmbr.asm.org/.

Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, December 2007, p. 551-575, Vol. 71, No. 4
1092-2172/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/MMBR.00014-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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