Is the C-terminal insertional signal in Gram-negative bacterial outer membrane proteins species-specific or not?

ABSTRACT:

Background

In Gram-negative bacteria, the outer membrane is composed of an asymmetric lipid bilayer of phopspholipids and lipopolysaccharides, and the transmembrane proteins that reside in this membrane are almost exclusively β-barrel proteins. These proteins are inserted into the membrane by a highly conserved and essential machinery, the BAM complex. It recognizes its substrates, unfolded outer membrane proteins (OMPs), through a C-terminal motif that has been speculated to be species-specific, based on theoretical and experimental results from only two species, Escherichia coli and Neisseria meningitidis, where it was shown on the basis of individual sequences and motifs that OMPs from the one cannot easily be over expressed in the other, unless the C-terminal motif was adapted.

SUBMITTER: Paramasivam N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3582582 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature