Insight into the assembly properties and functional organisation of the magnetotactic bacterial actin-like homolog, MamK.

ABSTRACT: Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) synthesize magnetosomes, which are intracellular vesicles comprising a magnetic particle. A series of magnetosomes arrange themselves in chains to form a magnetic dipole that enables the cell to orient itself along the Earth's magnetic field. MamK, an actin-like homolog of MreB has been identified as a central component in this organisation. Gene deletion, fluorescence microscopy and in vitro studies have yielded mechanistic differences in the filament assembly of MamK with other bacterial cytoskeletal proteins within the cell. With little or no information on the structural and behavioural characteristics of MamK outside the cell, the mamK gene from Magnetospirillium gryphiswaldense was cloned and expressed to better understand the differences in the cytoskele

SUBMITTER: Sonkaria S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3346761 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature