The biofilm-associated surface protein Esp of Enterococcus faecalis forms amyloid-like fibers

Functional amyloids are considered as common building block structures of the biofilm matrix in different bacteria. In previous work, we have shown that the staphylococcal surface protein Bap, a member of the Biofilm-Associated Proteins (BAP) family, is processed and the fragments containing the N-terminal region become aggregation-prone and self-assemble into amyloid-like structures. Here, we report that Esp, a Bap-orthologous protein produced by Enterococcus faecalis, displays a similar amyloidogenic behavior. We demonstrate that at acidic pH the N-terminal region of Esp forms aggregates with an amyloid-like conformation, as evidenced by biophysical analysis and the binding of protein aggregates to amyloid-indicative dyes. Expression of a chimeric protein, with its Esp N-terminal domain anchored to the cell wall through the R domain of clumping factor A, showed that the Esp N-terminal region is sufficient to confer multicellular behavior through the formation of an extracellular amyloid-like material. These results suggest that the mechanism of amyloid-like aggregation to build the biofilm matrix might be widespread among BAP-like proteins. This amyloid-based mechanism may not only have strong relevance for bacteria lifestyle but could also contribute to the amyloid burden to which the human physiology is potentially exposed.