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Updated: May 23, 2026

Conjugative Mating Assays for Sequence-specific Analysis of Transfer Proteins Involved in Bacterial Conjugation
Published on: January 4, 2017
Interaction between relaxase MbeA and accessory protein MbeC of the conjugally mobilizable plasmid ColE1
Athanasia Varsaki1, Heather K Lamb, Olga Eleftheriadou
1Sector of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece. avarsaki@gmail.com
Abstract:
MbeA and MbeC are two key proteins in plasmid ColE1 conjugal mobilization. Isothermal titration calorimetry was used to detect and quantify an interaction between MbeA and MbeC. As a result of this interaction, the affinity of MbeA for single stranded DNA increased. The interaction was confirmed in vivo using a bacterial two-hybrid system, which revealed that MbeA-MbeC complexes are formed through the amino-terminal region of MbeA and the carboxy-terminal region of MbeC. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of direct interactions between conjugative proteins encoded by a mobilizable plasmid.
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