{"doi":"10.1111/j.1365-2958.2008.06503.x","title":"The <i>Fusobacterium nucleatum</i> outer membrane protein RadD is an arginine‐inhibitable adhesin required for inter‐species adherence and the structured architecture of multispecies biofilm","abstract":"<jats:title>Summary</jats:title><jats:p>A defining characteristic of the suspected periodontal pathogen <jats:italic>Fusobacterium nucleatum</jats:italic> is its ability to adhere to a plethora of oral bacteria. This distinguishing feature is suggested to play an important role in oral biofilm formation and pathogenesis, with fusobacteria proposed to serve as central ‘bridging organisms’ in the architecture of the oral biofilm bringing together species which would not interact otherwise. Previous studies indicate that these bacterial interactions are mediated by galactose‐ or arginine‐inhibitable adhesins although genetic evidence for the role and nature of these proposed adhesins remains elusive. To characterize these adhesins at the molecular level, the genetically transformable <jats:italic>F. nucleatum</jats:italic> strain ATCC 23726 was screened for adherence properties, and arginine‐inhibitable adhesion was evident, while galactose‐inhibitable adhesion was not detected. Six potential arginine‐binding proteins were isolated from the membrane fraction of <jats:italic>F. nucleatum</jats:italic> ATCC 23726 and identified via mass spectroscopy as members of the outer membrane family of proteins in <jats:italic>F. nucleatum</jats:italic>. Inactivation of the genes encoding these six candidates for arginine‐inhibitable adhesion and two additional homologues revealed that only a mutant derivative carrying an insertion in <jats:italic>Fn1526</jats:italic> (now designated as <jats:italic>radD</jats:italic>) demonstrated significantly decreased co‐aggregation with representatives of the Gram‐positive ‘early oral colonizers’. Lack of the 350 kDa outer membrane protein encoded by <jats:italic>radD</jats:italic> resulted in the failure to form the extensive structured biofilm observed with the parent strain when grown in the presence of <jats:italic>Streptococcus sanguinis</jats:italic> ATCC 10556. These findings indicate that <jats:italic>radD</jats:italic> is responsible for arginine‐inhibitable adherence of <jats:italic>F. nucleatum</jats:italic> and provides definitive molecular evidence that <jats:italic>F. nucleatum</jats:italic> adhesins play a vital role in inter‐species adherence and multispecies biofilm formation.</jats:p>","journal":"Molecular Microbiology","year":2009,"id":590926,"datarank":8.255297289850398,"base_score":5.54907608489522,"endowment":5.54907608489522,"self_citation_contribution":0.8323614127342831,"citation_network_contribution":7.422935877116116,"self_endowment_contribution":0.8323614127342831,"citer_contribution":7.422935877116116,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":256,"citer_count":200,"citers_with_citation_signal":199,"citers_with_endowment":199,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":361135,"name":"Renate Lux","orcid":"0000-0003-3253-0471","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1511881,"name":"Susan Kinder Haake","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":261962,"name":"Wenyuan Shi","orcid":"0000-0003-2435-9256","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1511880,"name":"Christopher W. Kaplan","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"The <i>Fusobacterium nucleatum</i> outer membrane protein RadD is an arginine‐inhibitable adhesin required for inter‐species adherence and the structured architecture of multispecies biofilm","abstract":"<jats:title>Summary</jats:title><jats:p>A defining characteristic of the suspected periodontal pathogen <jats:italic>Fusobacterium nucleatum</jats:italic> is its ability to adhere to a plethora of oral bacteria. This distinguishing feature is suggested to play an important role in oral biofilm formation and pathogenesis, with fusobacteria proposed to serve as central ‘bridging organisms’ in the architecture of the oral biofilm bringing together species which would not interact otherwise. Previous studies indicate that these bacterial interactions are mediated by galactose‐ or arginine‐inhibitable adhesins although genetic evidence for the role and nature of these proposed adhesins remains elusive. To characterize these adhesins at the molecular level, the genetically transformable <jats:italic>F. nucleatum</jats:italic> strain ATCC 23726 was screened for adherence properties, and arginine‐inhibitable adhesion was evident, while galactose‐inhibitable adhesion was not detected. Six potential arginine‐binding proteins were isolated from the membrane fraction of <jats:italic>F. nucleatum</jats:italic> ATCC 23726 and identified via mass spectroscopy as members of the outer membrane family of proteins in <jats:italic>F. nucleatum</jats:italic>. Inactivation of the genes encoding these six candidates for arginine‐inhibitable adhesion and two additional homologues revealed that only a mutant derivative carrying an insertion in <jats:italic>Fn1526</jats:italic> (now designated as <jats:italic>radD</jats:italic>) demonstrated significantly decreased co‐aggregation with representatives of the Gram‐positive ‘early oral colonizers’. Lack of the 350 kDa outer membrane protein encoded by <jats:italic>radD</jats:italic> resulted in the failure to form the extensive structured biofilm observed with the parent strain when grown in the presence of <jats:italic>Streptococcus sanguinis</jats:italic> ATCC 10556. These findings indicate that <jats:italic>radD</jats:italic> is responsible for arginine‐inhibitable adherence of <jats:italic>F. nucleatum</jats:italic> and provides definitive molecular evidence that <jats:italic>F. nucleatum</jats:italic> adhesins play a vital role in inter‐species adherence and multispecies biofilm formation.</jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":5.54907608489522,"endowment":5.54907608489522,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"19007407","pmcid":"PMC2741168","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W2005421221","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"NIDCR NIH HHS","grant_id":"R01 DE015348","title":null},{"funder_name":"NIDCR NIH HHS","grant_id":"DE015348","title":null}],"total_grants":2,"fwci":6.1525,"citation_percentile":0.96042713,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2012,"count":7},{"year":2013,"count":6},{"year":2014,"count":12},{"year":2015,"count":10},{"year":2016,"count":8},{"year":2017,"count":8},{"year":2018,"count":13},{"year":2019,"count":19},{"year":2020,"count":18},{"year":2021,"count":15},{"year":2022,"count":20},{"year":2023,"count":22},{"year":2024,"count":39},{"year":2025,"count":32},{"year":2026,"count":8}],"oa_status":"green","license":"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/2741168","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/2741168","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1365-2958.2008.06503.x","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-2958.2008.06503.x","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2958.2008.06503.x","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19007407","host_type":"repository"}],"fields_of_study":["Streptococcal Infections and Treatments","Oral microbiology and periodontitis research","Otolaryngology and Infectious Diseases","Adhesins, Bacterial","Arginine","Bacterial Adhesion","Biofilms","Fusobacterium nucleatum","Gene Silencing","Mutagenesis","Operon","RNA, Bacterial","Species Specificity","Streptococcus sanguis"],"mesh_terms":["Arginine","Bacterial Adhesion","Operon","RNA, Bacterial","Species Specificity","Streptococcus sanguis","Mutagenesis","Fusobacterium nucleatum","Biofilms","Adhesins, Bacterial","Gene Silencing"],"keywords":["Fusobacterium nucleatum","Bacterial adhesin","Biology","Biofilm","Microbiology","Bacterial outer membrane","Fusobacteria","Streptococcus sanguinis","Arginine","Streptococcus gordonii","Mutant","Periodontal pathogen","Bacteria","Escherichia coli","Genetics","Gene","Porphyromonas gingivalis","Amino acid"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Life in Land"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-25T13:12:23.116984Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}