| Description | Bacterial type IV pili are surface filaments critical for diverse biological processes including surface and host cell adhesion, colonisation, biofilm formation, twitching motility, DNA uptake during natural transformation and virulence [ , ]. The proteins necessary to form the type IV pili inner-membrane complex, are included in the pilMNOPQ operon which encodes the cytoplasmic actin-like protein PilM, PilN, PilO, the periplasmic lipoprotein PilP and the outer-membrane secretin PilQ. The inner-membrane PilM/N/O/P complex is required for the optimal function of the outer-membrane secretin PilQ. This cluster is highly conserved across the type IV pilus-producing bacterial species, and all of these proteins have been shown to be essential for twitching motility [, ].The type IV pilus inner membrane component PilM is required for competency and pilus biogenesis [ , ]. PilM associates with PilNO heterodimers by binding the conserved cytoplasmic N terminus of PilN. Binding to PilN induce conformational changes that allow PilM to bind its own N-terminal and form dimers. It also binds ATP, which facilitates PilN interaction [, ]. This protein is required for the assembly of the type IV fimbria in P. aeruginosa and for a similar pilus-like structure in Synechocystis. It is also found in species such as Deinococcus described as having natural transformation (for which a type IV pilus-like structure is proposed) but not fimbria.This entry also includes Competence protein A from Haemophilus influenzae in which this cluster is annotated as comA/B/C/D/E. | Name | Type IV pilus inner membrane component PilM |
| Short Name | PilM | Type | Family |
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