Apparent size and morphology of bacterial microcompartments varies with technique

Bacterial microcompartments (MCPs) are protein-based organelles that encapsulate metabolic pathways. Metabolic engineers have recently sought to repurpose MCPs to encapsulate heterologous pathways to increase flux through pathways of interest. As MCP engineering becomes more common, standardized met...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2020-03, Vol.15 (3), p.e0226395-e0226395
Main Authors: Kennedy, Nolan W, Hershewe, Jasmine M, Nichols, Taylor M, Roth, Eric W, Wilke, Charlene D, Mills, Carolyn E, Jewett, Michael C, Tullman-Ercek, Danielle
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacteria
Bioengineering
Biology and Life Sciences
Carbon
Cyanobacteria
Deflation (Economics)
Encapsulation
Engineering
Engineers
Enzymes
Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial - physiology
Imaging techniques
Metabolic Networks and Pathways - physiology
Metabolic pathways
Metabolism
Methods
Microbiological research
Morphology
Organelles
Pathogens
Physical Sciences
Physiological aspects
Proteins
Research and Analysis Methods
Salmonella
Salmonella typhimurium - genetics
Salmonella typhimurium - metabolism
Sample preparation
Synthetic biology
Transmission electron microscopy
Variation
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Summary:Bacterial microcompartments (MCPs) are protein-based organelles that encapsulate metabolic pathways. Metabolic engineers have recently sought to repurpose MCPs to encapsulate heterologous pathways to increase flux through pathways of interest. As MCP engineering becomes more common, standardized methods for analyzing changes to MCPs and interpreting results across studies will become increasingly important. In this study, we demonstrate that different imaging techniques yield variations in the apparent size of purified MCPs from Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium LT2, likely due to variations in sample preparation methods. We provide guidelines for preparing samples for MCP imaging and outline expected variations in apparent size and morphology between methods. With this report we aim to establish an aid for comparing results across studies.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0226395