In Gram-negative bacteria the biogenesis of fimbriae (or pili) requires a two- component assembly and transport system which is composed of a periplasmic chaperone and an outer membrane protein which has been termed a molecular 'usher'. The usher protein is rather large (from 86 to 100 Kd) and seems to be mainly composed of membrane-spanning beta-sheets, a structure reminiscent of porins. Although the degree of sequence similarity of these proteins is not very high they share a number of characteriztics. One of these is the presence of two pairs of cysteines, the first one located in the N-terminal part and the second at the C-terminal extremity that are probably involved in disulphide bonds. The best conserved region is located in the central part of these proteins.