Outer-membrane transport of aromatic hydrocarbons as a first step in biodegradation.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial biodegradation of hydrocarbons, an important process for environmental remediation, requires the passage of hydrophobic substrates across the cell membrane. Here, we report crystal structures of two outer membrane proteins, Pseudomonas putida TodX and Ralstonia pickettii TbuX, which have been implicated in hydrocarbon transport and are part of a subfamily of the FadL fatty acid transporter family. The structures of TodX and TbuX show significant differences with those previously determined for Escherichia coli FadL, which may provide an explanation for the substrate-specific transport of TodX and TbuX observed with in vivo transport assays. The TodX and TbuX structures revealed 14-stranded beta-barrels with an N-terminal hatch domain blocking the barrel interior. A hydrophobic ch

SUBMITTER: Hearn EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2438428 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature