β-barrel proteins dictate the effect of core oligosaccharide composition on outer membrane mechanics.

ABSTRACT: The outer membrane is the defining structure of Gram-negative bacteria. We previously demonstrated that it is critical for the mechanical integrity of the cell envelope and therefore to the robustness of the bacterial cell as a whole. Here, to determine the key molecules and moieties within the outer membrane that underlie its contribution to cell envelope mechanics, we measured cell-envelope stiffness across several sets of mutants with altered outer-membrane sugar content, protein content, and electric charge. To decouple outer membrane stiffness from total cell envelope stiffness, we developed a novel microfluidics-based "osmotic force extension" assay. In tandem, we developed a simple method to increase throughput of microfluidics experiments by performing them on color-coded pools of

SUBMITTER: Fitzmaurice D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11398377 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature