... the C-termini of other members of the secre-tion family, such as PilQ of Myxococcus xanthus [28],ExeD of Aeromonas salmonicida [29], PilQ of P. aerugi-nosa [25,30], and PilQ of N. gonorrhoeae ... function of the competence proteinsPilM, PilN, PilO, PilW, PilQ and PilA4 in the DNAtranslocator of T. thermophilus HB27.ResultsHeterologous expression and purification of PilMNOWQ and PilA4To ... The crudeextracts of wild-type (20 lg of protein) and mutant strains (20 lgofprotein each) were analyzed by SDS ⁄ PAGE and western blotting byusing PilM, PilN, PilO, PilW and PilQ antisera....