{"id":107623,"date":"2025-05-29T14:54:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T18:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/cell-biology\/?p=107623"},"modified":"2026-05-22T17:01:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T21:01:05","slug":"the-mating-pilus-of-e-coli-ped208-acts-as-a-conduit-for-ssdna-during-horizontal-gene-transfer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/cell-biology\/2025\/05\/29\/the-mating-pilus-of-e-coli-ped208-acts-as-a-conduit-for-ssdna-during-horizontal-gene-transfer\/","title":{"rendered":"The mating pilus of E. coli pED208 acts as a conduit for ssDNA during horizontal gene transfer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Authors: <\/strong>Leticia Beltr\u00e1n 1, Holly Torsilieri 2, Jonasz B Patkowski 3, Jie E Yang 4, James Casanova 2, Tiago R D Costa 3, Elizabeth R Wright 4, Edward H Egelman 1<\/p>\n

Citation:<\/strong> Beltr\u00e1n L, Torsilieri H, Patkowski JB, Yang JE, Casanova J, Costa TRD, Wright ER, Egelman EH. The mating pilus of\u00a0E. coli<\/i>\u00a0pED208 acts as a conduit for ssDNA during horizontal gene transfer. mBio. 2024 Jan 16;15(1):e0285723. doi: 10.1128\/mbio.02857-23. Epub 2023 Dec 5. PMID: 38051116; PMCID: PMC10790687.<\/p>\n

DOI: <\/strong>10.1128\/mbio.02857-23<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Pub-Med Number<\/strong>: 38051116<\/span><\/p>\n

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Bacteria are constantly exchanging DNA, which constitutes horizontal gene transfer. While some of these occurs by a non-specific process called natural transformation, some occurs by a specific mating between a donor and a recipient cell. In specific conjugation, the mating pilus is extended from the donor cell to make contact with the recipient cell, but whether DNA is actually transferred through this pilus or by another mechanism involving the type IV secretion system complex without the pilus has been an open question. Using\u00a0Escherichia coli<\/i>, we show that DNA can be transferred through this pilus between a donor and a recipient cell that has not established a tight mating junction, providing a new picture for the role of this pilus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Authors: Leticia Beltr\u00e1n 1, Holly Torsilieri 2, Jonasz B Patkowski 3, Jie E Yang 4, James Casanova 2, Tiago R D Costa 3, Elizabeth R Wright 4, Edward H Egelman 1 Citation: Beltr\u00e1n L, Torsilieri H, Patkowski JB, Yang JE, Casanova J, Costa TRD, Wright ER, Egelman EH. The mating pilus of\u00a0E. coli\u00a0pED208 acts as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1740,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[22],"class_list":["post-107623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-publications","tag-intranet"],"acf":false,"yoast_head":"\nThe mating pilus of E. coli pED208 acts as a conduit for ssDNA during horizontal gene transfer - Department of Cell Biology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/cell-biology\/2025\/05\/29\/the-mating-pilus-of-e-coli-ped208-acts-as-a-conduit-for-ssdna-during-horizontal-gene-transfer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The mating pilus of E. coli pED208 acts as a conduit for ssDNA during horizontal gene transfer - Department of Cell Biology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Authors: Leticia Beltr\u00e1n 1, Holly Torsilieri 2, Jonasz B Patkowski 3, Jie E Yang 4, James Casanova 2, Tiago R D Costa 3, Elizabeth R Wright 4, Edward H Egelman 1 Citation: Beltr\u00e1n L, Torsilieri H, Patkowski JB, Yang JE, Casanova J, Costa TRD, Wright ER, Egelman EH. 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