{"doi":"10.1128/jb.183.1.55-62.2001","title":"Role of the\n            <i>Eikenella corrodens pilA</i>\n            Locus in Pilus Function and Phase Variation","abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title>\n          <jats:p>\n            The human pathogen\n            <jats:italic>Eikenella corrodens</jats:italic>\n            expresses type IV pili and exhibits a phase variation involving the irreversible transition from piliated to nonpiliated variants. On solid medium, piliated variants form small (S-phase), corroding colonies whereas nonpiliated variants form large (L-phase), noncorroding colonies. We are studying pilus structure and function in the clinical isolate\n            <jats:italic>E. corrodens</jats:italic>\n            VA1. Earlier work defined the\n            <jats:italic>pilA</jats:italic>\n            locus which includes\n            <jats:italic>pilA1</jats:italic>\n            ,\n            <jats:italic>pilA2</jats:italic>\n            ,\n            <jats:italic>pilB</jats:italic>\n            , and\n            <jats:italic>hagA</jats:italic>\n            . Both\n            <jats:italic>pilA1</jats:italic>\n            and\n            <jats:italic>pilA2</jats:italic>\n            predict a type IV pilin, whereas\n            <jats:italic>pilB</jats:italic>\n            predicts a putative pilus assembly protein. The role of\n            <jats:italic>hagA</jats:italic>\n            has not been clearly established. That work also confirmed that\n            <jats:italic>pilA1</jats:italic>\n            encodes the major pilus protein in this strain and showed that the phase variation involves a posttranslational event in pilus formation. In this study, the function of the individual genes comprising the\n            <jats:italic>pilA</jats:italic>\n            locus was examined using a recently developed protocol for targeted interposon mutagenesis of S-phase variant VA1-S1. Different\n            <jats:italic>pilA</jats:italic>\n            mutants were compared to S-phase and L-phase variants for several distinct aspects of phase variation and type IV pilus biosynthesis and function. S-phase cells were characterized by surface pili, competence for natural transformation, and twitching motility, whereas L-phase cells lacked these features. Inactivation of\n            <jats:italic>pilA1</jats:italic>\n            yielded a mutant that was phenotypically indistinguishable from L-phase variants, showing that native biosynthesis of the type IV pilus in strain VA1 is dependent on expression of\n            <jats:italic>pilA1</jats:italic>\n            and proper export and assembly of PilA1. Inactivation of\n            <jats:italic>pilA2</jats:italic>\n            yielded a mutant that was phenotypically indistinguishable from S-phase variants, indicating that\n            <jats:italic>pilA2</jats:italic>\n            is not essential for biosynthesis of functionally normal pili. A mutant inactivated for\n            <jats:italic>pilB</jats:italic>\n            was deficient for twitching motility, suggesting a role for PilB in this pilus-related phenomenon. Inactivation of\n            <jats:italic>hagA</jats:italic>\n            , which may encode a tellurite resistance protein, had no effect on pilus structure or function.\n          </jats:p>","journal":"Journal of Bacteriology","year":2001,"id":24606,"datarank":1.5738818712182512,"base_score":3.2188758248682006,"endowment":3.2188758248682006,"self_citation_contribution":0.48283137373023016,"citation_network_contribution":1.091050497488021,"self_endowment_contribution":0.48283137373023016,"citer_contribution":1.091050497488021,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":24,"citer_count":24,"citers_with_citation_signal":22,"citers_with_endowment":22,"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":147178,"name":"Rona L. Hirschberg","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":147180,"name":"Michael R. Schaefer","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":147177,"name":"Maria T. Villar","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"base_score":3.2188758248682006,"endowment":3.2188758248682006,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"11114900","pmcid":"PMC94849","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W2143143972","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"NIDCR NIH HHS","grant_id":"DE10439","title":null}],"total_grants":1,"fwci":0.6171,"citation_percentile":0.60860409,"influential_citations":1,"citation_trend":[{"year":2012,"count":2},{"year":2013,"count":1},{"year":2017,"count":1},{"year":2019,"count":1},{"year":2022,"count":1}],"oa_status":"green","license":"https://journals.asm.org/non-commercial-tdm-license","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/94849","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc94849?pdf=render","host_type":"GREEN"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/94849","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/JB.183.1.55-62.2001","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1128/jb.183.1.55-62.2001","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11114900","host_type":"repository"}],"fields_of_study":["Rabies epidemiology and control","Streptococcal Infections and Treatments","Bacterial biofilms and quorum sensing","Medicine","Biology","Bacterial Proteins","DNA-Binding Proteins","Eikenella corrodens","Fimbriae Proteins","Gene Deletion","Humans","Microscopy, Electron","Molecular Sequence Data","Mutagenesis, Insertional","Phenotype","Transformation, Bacterial"],"mesh_terms":["Bacterial Proteins","DNA-Binding Proteins","Humans","Microscopy, Electron","Molecular Sequence Data","Phenotype","Transformation, Bacterial","Eikenella corrodens","Mutagenesis, Insertional","Gene Deletion","Fimbriae Proteins"],"keywords":["Pilus","Eikenella corrodens","Phase variation","Pilin","Biology","Mutant","Locus (genetics)","Genetics","Microbiology","Gene","Escherichia coli","Bacteria","Phenotype"],"sdg_mappings":[],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[{"name":"gen"}],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-06-07T22:49:25.719170Z","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":[]}