Type III secretion system-associated pilus of Pseudomonas syringae as an epitope display tool.

Type III secretion system-associated pili found in several plant pathogenic bacteria are required for injection of virulence proteins from bacteria into the plant cells. The possibility to use the type III secretion pilus of Pseudomonas syringae as an epitope display tool was studied. The advantage of the type III secretion pilus, compared with conventional fimbrial epitope display tools, is that the pilin subunits of the type III secretion pilus can auto-assemble into intact pili in vitro.

Transcript stabilization by mRNA sequences from hrpA of Pseudomonas syringae.

Production of heterologous proteins in bacteria is one of the main applications of biotechnology. Although several high-efficiency expression systems have been developed, different steps in protein production may become rate-limiting depending on the production system and the protein being produced. One bottle neck can be the instability of the mRNA.

The bacterial type III secretion system-associated pilin HrpA has an unusually long mRNA half-life.

Secondary structures affect mRNA stability and may play a role in protein secretion. We have studied the mRNA of hrpA, which codes for the major structural unit of the type III secretion system-associated pilus of Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato, Erwinia carotovora and Pseudomonas syringae pv.