Using Cryo-EM to Investigate Bacterial Secretion Systems

Bacterial secretion systems are responsible for releasing macromolecules to the extracellular milieu or directly into other cells. These membrane complexes are associated with pathogenicity and bacterial fitness. Understanding of these large assemblies has exponentially increased in the last few yea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual review of microbiology 2018-09, Vol.72 (1), p.231-254
Main Authors: Rapisarda, Chiara, Tassinari, Matteo, Gubellini, Francesca, Fronzes, Rémi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacteria
Bacteria/enzymology
Bacterial Secretion Systems/ultrastructure
cryo-electron microscopy
cryo-EM
Cryoelectron Microscopy/methods
Cryoelectron Microscopy/trends
Crystallization
Electron microscopy
Fitness
Image resolution
Life Sciences
Macromolecules
Medical imaging
Microbiology
Pathogenicity
Pathogens
Secretion
secretion systems
single particle
Tomography
Transmission electron microscopy
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Summary:Bacterial secretion systems are responsible for releasing macromolecules to the extracellular milieu or directly into other cells. These membrane complexes are associated with pathogenicity and bacterial fitness. Understanding of these large assemblies has exponentially increased in the last few years thanks to electron microscopy. In fact, a revolution in this field has led to breakthroughs in characterizing the structures of secretion systems and other macromolecular machineries so as to obtain high-resolution images of complexes that could not be crystallized. In this review, we give a brief overview of structural advancements in the understanding of secretion systems, focusing in particular on cryo-electron microscopy, whether tomography or single-particle analysis. We describe how such techniques have contributed to knowledge of the mechanism of macromolecule secretion in bacteria and the impact they will have in the future.
ISSN:0066-4227
1545-3251
0066-4227
DOI:10.1146/annurev-micro-090817-062702