Abstract
We have succeeded in the reconstitution in vitro of polyhook structures from monomeric hook proteins. Using immunoelectron microscopy, we found that monomeric hook proteins derived from a polyhook mutant of Salmonella were polymerized onto one of the two ends of each short fragment of polyhook from a mutant of Escherichia coli under physiological conditions. The polymerization occurred in one direction, the growing end corresponding to the distal end of an intact polyhook on a cell. The growth of polyhook fibers in vitro was very slow and the initial rate was saturated at 20 nm/h at monomer concentrations higher than 3 mg/ml. During growth. two or three fibers were sometimes associated with each other in a head-to-tail manner to produce longer ones. The experimental results are compared with those obtained for flagellin polymerization and several common features are found.
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