Selective molecular transport through the protein shell of a bacterial microcompartment organelle.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial microcompartments are widespread prokaryotic organelles that have important and diverse roles ranging from carbon fixation to enteric pathogenesis. Current models for microcompartment function propose that their outer protein shell is selectively permeable to small molecules, but whether a protein shell can mediate selective permeability and how this occurs are unresolved questions. Here, biochemical and physiological studies of structure-guided mutants are used to show that the hexameric PduA shell protein of the 1,2-propanediol utilization (Pdu) microcompartment forms a selectively permeable pore tailored for the influx of 1,2-propanediol (the substrate of the Pdu microcompartment) while restricting the efflux of propionaldehyde, a toxic intermediate of 1,2-propanediol cataboli

SUBMITTER: Chowdhury C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4364225 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature