ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Synthetic Biology
Construction and characterization of a nanopore derived from the transmembrane domain of a trimeric autotransporter adhesin
Provisionally accepted
- 1Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan
- 2Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Koganei, Japan
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Bacterial secretion systems (SSs) are increasingly recognized as biological nanopores with potential biotechnological applications. Here, we engineered the transmembrane β-barrel of a trimeric autotransporter adhesin (TAA) secreted by the type Vc SS. The coiled-coil segment that occupies the central lumen of the transmembrane β-barrel of an Acinetobacter TAA, AtaA, was removed to design an open β-barrel pore, termed AtaApore. Polypeptides of AtaApore were produced using a cell-free expression system and reconstituted into lipid membranes. Electrophysiological measurements showed ion channel activity of AtaApore with a median conductance of 0.17 nS. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed ion transport properties, including transient trapping of Cl-ions at a constriction formed by R3597 and R3622. Together, to our knowledge, these results provide the first characterization of a nanopore derived from a TAA secreted by the type Vc SS. AtaApore provides a new scaffold for nanopore engineering and a simplified model for probing the mechanism of the type Vc SS.
Keywords: Electrophysiological measurement, Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, nanopore, trimeric autotransporter adhesin (TAA), type Vc secretion system
Received: 10 Dec 2025; Accepted: 05 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Sasahara, Yoshimoto, Peng, Hwang, Kobayashi, Kawano and Hori. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Katsutoshi Hori
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