Engineering Spatial Control of Bacterial Organelles.

ABSTRACT: Bacteria were once thought to lack organelles, but it is now clear they confine cellular reactions using an array of membrane- and protein-based compartments. A central question, however, is how bacterial organelles are organized in the cell, and whether their spatial control can be engineered. Here, we show that a two-protein system (McdAB) that positions carboxysomes-CO ₂ -fixing organelles found in autotrophic bacteria-can be repurposed to provide programmable spatial control to diverse organelles in Escherichia coli . McdAB not only restores proper assembly and positioning of heterologously expressed carboxysomes in E. coli , but can also be reprogrammed to spatially organize all other known types of bacterial organelles, including encapsulins, biomolecular con

SUBMITTER: Hoan Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12485843 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature