Protein Domain : Type IV pilus inner membrane component PilP IPR007446

Type	Family
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 PilP family are periplasmic proteins involved in the biogenesis of type IV pili [ ]. The N-terminal domain of PilP interacts with the periplasmic regions of PilNO, while the C-terminal beta-domain of PilP interacts with the N0 domain of PilQ, connecting PilO to the secretin PilQ [].This entry also includes competence protein D (comD) from Haemophilus influenzae which is encoded in the homologous operon comA/B/C/D/E.
Short Name	PilP