The chaperone-usher pathway of bacterial adhesin biogenesis - from molecular mechanism to strategies of anti-bacterial prevention and modern vaccine design*

The chaperone-usher system determines the biogenesis of surface-exposed adhesive structures responsible for virulence of many Gram-negative bacteria. Investigations of the last 20 years have resolved the mechanism of this pathway on a structural level for different species of pathogenic bacteria. The purpose of this review is to present the molecular mechanisms of the biogenesis of adhesive structures assembled via the chaperone-usher pathway. The obtained mechanistic data allow one to propose potential strategies of anti-bacterial action. Additionally, the specific properties of the polymeric adhesive structures (pili and fimbriae) of the chaperone-usher system allow their use as effective and safe recombinant vaccines carrying foreign epitopes in thousands of copies on bacterial cell surface.