Purification of the PilQ complex. Protein fractions of the different steps of the purification procedure were analyzed on a 3–12% polyacrylamide gradient SDS-PAGE gel. Lane 1, crude extract; lane 2, membrane fraction; lane 3, solubilized proteins; lane 4, pooled PilQ-containing fractions of the density gradient; lane 5, pooled PilQ-containing fractions of the anion exchange chromatography (Q-Sepharose); lane 6, pooled PilQ-containing fractions of the gel filtration (Superose 6).