The putative SpaH-like pilus of C. aurimucosum ATCC 700975. (A), Genes clusters involved in the synthesis of adhesive pili in C. aurimucosum ATCC 700975 and C. diphtheriae NCTC 13129. Colour code: green, sortases required for the assembly of the pilus; red, major pilin; dark blue, minor pilin; light blue, tip protein; grey, protein of unknown function. Specifically marked are: pilin boxes (WPK), E-boxes (Ebox), sorting signals (LPXTG), hydrophobic domains in major pilins (hatched boxes), and charged tails in minor pilins (hatched boxes). (B), Model representation of the corynebacterial SpaH-like pilus. The pilus is covalently anchored to the corynebacterial cell wall [55]. Sorting motifs (S) and pilin motifs (P) used for the pilus assembly, as well as E-boxes (E) and sorting signals used for anchoring of the minor pilins (S') are marked.