How bacteria integrate autotransporters into their outer membrane
Monday, September 23, 2013 - 08:00
in Biology & Nature
The bacterial outer envelope is densely packed with proteins that form small pores and facilitate the passage of nutrients, toxins and signaling molecules. Professors Timm Maier and Sebastian Hiller from the Biozentrum of the University of Basel now demonstrate how these transporter proteins are integrated into the outer membrane. Using x-ray structural analysis they reveal the structure-function relationship of the protein TamA, which plays an important role in the assembly of transport proteins in the bacterial outer membrane. Their findings have been published recently in the renowned scientific journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology.