The SurA periplasmic PPIase lacking its parvulin domains functions in vivo and has chaperone activity.

The Escherichia coli periplasmic peptidyl-prolyl isomerase (PPIase) SurA is involved in the maturation of outer membrane porins. SurA consists of a substantial N-terminal region, two iterative parvulin-like domains and a C-terminal tail. Here we show that a variant of SurA lacking both parvulin-like domains exhibits a PPIase-independent chaperone-like activity in vitro and almost completely complements the in vivo function of intact SurA. SurA interacts preferentially (>50-fold) with in vitro synthesized porins over other similarly sized proteins, leading us to suggest that the chaperone-like function of SurA preferentially facilitates maturation of outer membrane proteins.