Membrane integration of an essential β-barrel protein prerequires burial of an extracellular loop.

ABSTRACT: The Bam complex assembles β-barrel proteins into the outer membrane (OM) of Gram-negative bacteria. These proteins comprise cylindrical β-sheets with long extracellular loops and create pores to allow passage of nutrients and waste products across the membrane. Despite their functional importance, several questions remain about how these proteins are assembled into the OM after their synthesis in the cytoplasm and secretion across the inner membrane. To understand this process better, we studied the assembly of an essential β-barrel substrate for the Bam complex, BamA. By mutating conserved residues in the β-barrel domain of this protein, we generated three assembly-defective BamA substrates that stall early in the folding process in the periplasm. Two of the three defective substrates, wh

SUBMITTER: Wzorek JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5347601 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature