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Updated: Feb 25, 2026

Monitoring the Assembly of a Secreted Bacterial Virulence Factor Using Site-specific Crosslinking
Published on: December 17, 2013
The type IV secretion system core component VirB8 interacts via the β1-strand with VirB10
Mahzad Sharifahmadian1, Ingrid U Nlend1, Lauriane Lecoq1
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal, QC, Canada.
Abstract:
In this work, we provide evidence for the interactions between VirB8 and VirB10, two core components of the type IV secretion system (T4SS). Using nuclear magnetic resonance experiments, we identified residues on the β1-strand of Brucella VirB8 that undergo chemical shift changes in the presence of VirB10. Bacterial two-hybrid experiments confirm the importance of the β1-strand, whereas phage display experiments suggest that the α2-helix of VirB8 may also contribute to the interaction with VirB10. Conjugation assays using the VirB8 homolog TraE as a model show that several residues on the β1-strand of TraE are important for T4SS function. Together, our results suggest that the β1-strand of VirB8-like proteins is essential for their interaction with VirB10 in the T4SS complex.
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