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Updated: Apr 11, 2026

Conjugative Mating Assays for Sequence-specific Analysis of Transfer Proteins Involved in Bacterial Conjugation
Published on: January 4, 2017
Structural Biology of Bacterial Type IV Secretion Systems
Vidya Chandran Darbari1, Gabriel Waksman
1Section of Structural Biology, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
Type IV secretion systems (T4SSs) are large multisubunit translocons, found in both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria and in some archaea. These systems transport a diverse array of substrates from DNA and protein-DNA complexes to proteins, and play fundamental roles in both bacterial pathogenesis and bacterial adaptation to the cellular milieu in which bacteria live. This review describes the various biochemical and structural advances made toward understanding the biogenesis, architecture, and function of T4SSs.
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