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Bacterial physiology

Bridging the gap for lipopolysaccharides

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 16, pages 184–185 (2018)Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 03 May 2018

This article has been updated

This study provides evidence that lipopolysaccharides are pushed from the inner membrane to the outer membrane of the bacterial cell envelope over a protein bridge.

In the LPS transport (Lpt) system, the LptBFG cassette at the inner membrane associates with membrane-bound LptC and, using ATP hydrolysis, it transfers LPS from the inner membrane to LptC. LPS is then transferred from LptC to periplasmic LptA, and from LptA to the LptDE translocon in the outer membrane. To test their hypothesis that LPS is transported between membranes via a LptC–LptA–LptD protein bridge, the authors purified components of the LPS transport system and incorporated the amino acid p-benzoylphenylalanine (pBPA) into an LPS-binding site in LptC, LptA and LptD. Purified inner and outer membrane complexes were incorporated separately into LPS-containing liposomes, incubated together with ATP and exposed to UV light, which causes pBPA to covalently crosslink to LPS. Crosslinking experiments revealed that LPS was transferred to LptC in an ATP-dependent manner, LptC stimulated the interaction of LPS with LptA and that membrane-to-membrane transport of LPS to LptD was dependent on ATP and all seven Lpt proteins.

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Change history

  • 03 May 2018

    The image that accompanies this article was wrongly credited to Macmillan Publishers Limited in the online version. The correct credit is iStockphoto. This has now been corrected online. We apologize to the readers for any confusion caused.

References

  1. Sherman, D. J. et al. Lipopolysaccharide is transported to the cell surface by a membrane-to-membrane protein bridge. Science 359, 798–801 (2018)

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Authors
  1. Katharine H. Wrighton
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Okuda, S. et al. Lipopolysaccharide transport and assembly at the outer membrane: the PEZ model. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 14, 337–345 (2016)

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Wrighton, K. Bridging the gap for lipopolysaccharides. Nat Rev Microbiol 16, 184–185 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2018.30

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2018.30

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