Mutational analysis of plasmid R64 thin pilus prepilin: the entire prepilin sequence is required for processing by type IV prepilin peptidase.

The thin pili of IncI1 plasmid R64, which is required for conjugation in liquid media, belong to the type IV pilus family. They consist of a major subunit, the pilS product, and a minor component, one of the seven pilV products. The pilS product is first synthesized as a 22-kDa prepilin, processed to a 19-kDa mature pilin by the function of the pilU product, and then secreted outside the cell. The mature pilin is assembled to form a thin pilus with the pilV product. To reveal the relationship between the structure and function of the pilS product, 27 missense mutations, three N-terminal deletions, and two C-terminal deletions were constructed by PCR and site-directed mutagenesis. The characteristics of 32 mutant pilS products were analyzed. Four pilS mutant phenotype classes were identified. The products of 10 class I mutants were not processed by prepilin peptidase; the extracellular secretion of the products of two class II mutants was inhibited; from 11 class III mutants, thin pili with reduced activities in liquid mating were formed; from 9 class IV mutants, thin pili with mating activity similar to that of the wild-type pilS gene were formed. The point mutations of the class I mutants were distributed throughout the prepilin sequence, suggesting that processing of the pilS product requires the entire prepilin sequence.