Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Click Me!

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 5 August 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5736, pp. 936 - 938
DOI: 10.1126/science.1113397
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Protein Structures Forming the Shell of Primitive Bacterial Organelles

Cheryl A. Kerfeld,1,2,4 Michael R. Sawaya,1,3,4 Shiho Tanaka,1 Chau V. Nguyen,1 Martin Phillips,1,3 Morgan Beeby,1,3 Todd O. Yeates1,3,4*

Bacterial microcompartments are primitive organelles composed entirely of protein subunits. Genomic sequence databases reveal the widespread occurrence of microcompartments across diverse microbes. The prototypical bacterial microcompartment is the carboxysome, a protein shell for sequestering carbon fixation reactions. We report three-dimensional crystal structures of multiple carboxysome shell proteins, revealing a hexameric unit as the basic microcompartment building block and showing how these hexamers assemble to form flat facets of the polyhedral shell. The structures suggest how molecular transport across the shell may be controlled and how structural variations might govern the assembly and architecture of these subcellular compartments.

1 Molecular Biology Institute, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Box 951570, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
2 Life Sciences Core, UCLA, Box 160606, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
3 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA, Box 951569, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
4 UCLA–U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Institute for Genomics and Proteomics, Box 951570, Los Angeles, CA 90095–1570, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: yeates{at}mbi.ucla.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Lactobacillus reuteri DSM 20016 Produces Cobalamin-Dependent Diol Dehydratase in Metabolosomes and Metabolizes 1,2-Propanediol by Disproportionation.
D. D. Sriramulu, M. Liang, D. Hernandez-Romero, E. Raux-Deery, H. Lunsdorf, J. B. Parsons, M. J. Warren, and M. B. Prentice (2008)
J. Bacteriol. 190, 4559-4567
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Biochemical and Structural Insights into Bacterial Organelle Form and Biogenesis.
J. B. Parsons, S. D. Dinesh, E. Deery, H. K. Leech, A. A. Brindley, D. Heldt, S. Frank, C. M. Smales, H. Lunsdorf, A. Rambach, et al. (2008)
J. Biol. Chem. 283, 14366-14375
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Advances in understanding the cyanobacterial CO2-concentrating-mechanism (CCM): functional components, Ci transporters, diversity, genetic regulation and prospects for engineering into plants.
G. D. Price, M. R. Badger, F. J. Woodger, and B. M. Long (2008)
J. Exp. Bot. 59, 1441-1461
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
CO2 Fixation Kinetics of Halothiobacillus neapolitanus Mutant Carboxysomes Lacking Carbonic Anhydrase Suggest the Shell Acts as a Diffusional Barrier for CO2.
Z. Dou, S. Heinhorst, E. B. Williams, C. D. Murin, J. M. Shively, and G. C. Cannon (2008)
J. Biol. Chem. 283, 10377-10384
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Microcompartments for B12-Dependent 1,2-Propanediol Degradation Provide Protection from DNA and Cellular Damage by a Reactive Metabolic Intermediate.
E. M. Sampson and T. A. Bobik (2008)
J. Bacteriol. 190, 2966-2971
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Atomic-Level Models of the Bacterial Carboxysome Shell.
S. Tanaka, C. A. Kerfeld, M. R. Sawaya, F. Cai, S. Heinhorst, G. C. Cannon, and T. O. Yeates (2008)
Science 319, 1083-1086
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A Multiprotein Bicarbonate Dehydration Complex Essential to Carboxysome Function in Cyanobacteria.
S. S.-W. Cot, A. K.-C. So, and G. S. Espie (2008)
J. Bacteriol. 190, 936-945
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Carbon isotopic composition of Trichodesmium spp. colonies off Bermuda: effects of colony mass and season.
D. Tchernov and F. Lipschultz (2008)
J. Plankton Res. 30, 21-31
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Genomic and Biochemical Studies Demonstrating the Absence of an Alkane-Producing Phenotype in Vibrio furnissii M1.
L. P. Wackett, J. A. Frias, J. L. Seffernick, D. J. Sukovich, and S. M. Cameron (2007)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 73, 7192-7198
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Analysis of Carboxysomes from Synechococcus PCC7942 Reveals Multiple Rubisco Complexes with Carboxysomal Proteins CcmM and CcaA.
B. M. Long, M. R. Badger, S. M. Whitney, and G. D. Price (2007)
J. Biol. Chem. 282, 29323-29335
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Long-Term Response toward Inorganic Carbon Limitation in Wild Type and Glycolate Turnover Mutants of the Cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. Strain PCC 6803.
M. Eisenhut, E. A. von Wobeser, L. Jonas, H. Schubert, B. W. Ibelings, H. Bauwe, H. C.P. Matthijs, and M. Hagemann (2007)
Plant Physiology 144, 1946-1959
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Cryo-Electron Tomography Reveals the Comparative Three-Dimensional Architecture of Prochlorococcus, a Globally Important Marine Cyanobacterium.
C. S. Ting, C. Hsieh, S. Sundararaman, C. Mannella, and M. Marko (2007)
J. Bacteriol. 189, 4485-4493
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Genome Sequence of Aeromonas hydrophila ATCC 7966T: Jack of All Trades.
R. Seshadri, S. W. Joseph, A. K. Chopra, J. Sha, J. Shaw, J. Graf, D. Haft, M. Wu, Q. Ren, M. J. Rosovitz, et al. (2006)
J. Bacteriol. 188, 8272-8282
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Characterization of the Carboxysomal Carbonic Anhydrase CsoSCA from Halothiobacillus neapolitanus.
S. Heinhorst, E. B. Williams, F. Cai, C. D. Murin, J. M. Shively, and G. C. Cannon (2006)
J. Bacteriol. 188, 8087-8094
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Purification and Initial Biochemical Characterization of ATP:Cob(I)alamin Adenosyltransferase (EutT) Enzyme of Salmonella enterica.
N. R. Buan and J. C. Escalante-Semerena (2006)
J. Biol. Chem. 281, 16971-16977
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The Structure of beta-Carbonic Anhydrase from the Carboxysomal Shell Reveals a Distinct Subclass with One Active Site for the Price of Two.
M. R. Sawaya, G. C. Cannon, S. Heinhorst, S. Tanaka, E. B. Williams, T. O. Yeates, and C. A. Kerfeld (2006)
J. Biol. Chem. 281, 7546-7555
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Minimal Functions and Physiological Conditions Required for Growth of Salmonella enterica on Ethanolamine in the Absence of the Metabolosome.
S. R. Brinsmade, T. Paldon, and J. C. Escalante-Semerena (2005)
J. Bacteriol. 187, 8039-8046
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A view of primitive organelles.
N. LeBrasseur (2005)
J. Cell Biol. 170, 698
   Full Text »    PDF »


ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)