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Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Crystallization and Structural Determination of an Enzyme:Substrate Complex by Serial Crystallography in a Versatile Microfluidic Chip
Published on: March 20, 2021
Crystal structure of the ternary FimC-FimF(t)-FimD(N) complex indicates conserved pilus chaperone-subunit complex
Oliv Eidam1, Florian S N Dworkowski, Rudi Glockshuber
1University of Zurich, Department of Biochemistry, Winterthurerstrasse 190, Zurich, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Type 1 pili, anchored to the outer membrane protein FimD, enable uropathogenic Escherichia coli to attach to host cells. During pilus biogenesis, the N-terminal periplasmic domain of FimD (FimD(N)) binds complexes between the chaperone FimC and pilus subunits via its partly disordered N-terminal segment, as recently shown for the FimC-FimH(P)-FimD(N) ternary complex. We report the structure of a new ternary complex (FimC-FimF(t)-FimD(N)) with the subunit FimF(t) instead of FimH(p). FimD(N) recognizes FimC-FimF(t) and FimC-FimH(P) very similarly, predominantly through hydrophobic interactions. The conserved binding mode at a "hot spot" on the chaperone surface could guide the design of pilus assembly inhibitors.
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