TraC of IncN plasmid pKM101 associates with membranes and extracellular high-molecular-weight structures in Escherichia coli.

Conjugative transfer of IncN plasmid pKM101 is mediated by the TraI-TraII region-encoded transfer machinery components. Similar to the case for the related Agrobacterium tumefaciens T-complex transfer apparatus, this machinery is needed for assembly of pili to initiate cell-to-cell contact preceding DNA transfer. Biochemical and cell biological experiments presented here show extracellular localization of TraC, as suggested by extracellular complementation of TraC-deficient bacteria by helper cells expressing a functional plasmid transfer machinery (S. C. Winans, and G. C. Walker, J. Bacteriol. 161:402-410, 1985). Overexpression of TraC and its export in large amounts into the periplasm of Escherichia coli allowed purification by periplasmic extraction, ammonium sulfate precipitation, and column chromatography. Whereas TraC was soluble in overexpressing strains, it partly associated with the membranes in pKM101-carrying cells, possibly due to protein-protein interactions with other components of the TraI-TraII region-encoded transfer machinery. Membrane association of TraC was reduced in strains carrying pKM101 derivatives with transposon insertions in genes coding for other essential components of the transfer machinery, traM, traB, traD, and traE but not eex, coding for an entry exclusion protein not required for DNA transfer. Cross-linking identified protein-protein interactions of TraC in E. coli carrying pKM101 but not derivatives with transposon insertions in essential tra genes. Interactions with membrane-bound Tra proteins may incorporate TraC into a surface structure, suggested by its removal from the cell by shearing as part of a high-molecular-weight complex. Heterologous expression of TraC in A. tumefaciens partly compensated for the pilus assembly defect in strains deficient for its homolog VirB5, which further supported its role in assembly of conjugative pili. In addition to its association with high-molecular-weight structures, TraC was secreted into the extracellular milieu. Conjugation experiments showed that secreted TraC does not compensate transfer deficiency of TraC-deficient cells, suggesting that extracellular complementation may rely on cell-to-cell transfer of TraC only as part of a bona fide transfer apparatus.