Figure 1

The effect of hydrophobic trigger molecules on PNT oligomerization in solution. SEC analysis (Sephadex G50 resin) of 15 mg·mL^-1 ΔK122 incubated for 96 hours at room temperature with the addition of: (A) buffer only (10 mM Tris, 300 mM NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, 1 mM DTT, pH 7.4; no additives); (B) the hydrophobic trigger solution as reported by Audette et al. (1-undecanethiol, 1-propanol, methanol, DTT, EDTA, pH 6.4) [23]; panels C through I are buffer with the addition of 1-undecanethiol (C), 1-tetradecanethiol (D), methanol (E), 1-propanol (F), 2-methyl-2,4-pentanediol (G) and PEG 3350 (H) or PEG 8000 (I). All chromatograms are on a common vertical scale, and the effectiveness of each compound to initiate pilin oligomerization was evaluated by the appearance of the high molecular weight peak indicated with an arrow in each panel versus the concurrent decrease in the peak associated with the ΔK122 monomer ( panel A).