Abstract

Within gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli, the outer membrane porins provide a relatively non-specific uptake route which is utilised by a wide range of solutes including many antibiotics. Understanding the targeting and membrane assembly of these proteins is therefore of importance and this mini review aims to discuss this process in light of present knowledge.

References

[1]

van der Goot
F.G.
Didat
N.
Pattus
F.
Dowhan
W.
Letellier
L.
(
1993
)
Role of acidic phospholipids in the translocation and channel activity of colicins A and N in E. coli
.
Eur. J. Biochem.
213
,
217
221
.

[2]

Lugtenberg
B.
Alphen
L.
(
1983
)
Molecular architecture and functioning of the outer membrane of E.coli and other gram negative bacteria
.
Biochim. Biophys. Acta
737
,
51
151
.

[3]

Nikaido
H.
Vaara
M.
(
1985
)
Molecular basis for bacterial outer membrane permeability
.
Microbiol. Rev.
49
,
1
32
.

[4]

Korteland
J.
Graaff
P.
Lugtenberg
B.
(
1984
)
PhoE protein pores in the outer membranes of E. coli K-12 not only have a preference for phosphate and phosphate containing solutes but are general anion preferring channels
.
Biochim. Biophys. Acta
778
,
311
316
.

[5]

Hancock
R.E.W.
(
1987
)
Role of porins in outer membrane permeability
.
J. Bacteriol.
169
,
929
933
.

[6]

Benz
R.
Schmid
A.
Hancock
R.E.W.
(
1985
)
Ion selectivity of gram negative bacterial porins
.
J. Bacteriol.
162
,
722
727
.

[7]

Bosch
D.
Tommassen
J.
(
1987
)
Effects of linker insertions on the biogenesis and functioning of the E. coli outer membrane pore protein PhoE
.
Mol. Gen. Genet.
208
,
485
489
.

[8]

Lay
P.
Struyve
M.
Tommassen
J.
(
1986
)
Topology of the outer membrane pore protein PhoE of E. coli
.
J. Biol. Chem.
261
,
12222
12225
.

[9]

Jap
B.K.
Walian
P.J.
(
1990
)
Biophysics of the structure and function of porins
.
Q. Rev. Biophys.
23
,
367
403
.

[10]

Hancock
R.E.W.
Bellido
F.
(
1992
)
Antibiotic uptake, unusual results for unusual molecules
.
J. Antimicrob. Chemother.
29
,
235
243
.

[11]

Hancock
R.E.W.
Farmer
S.W.
Li
Z.
Poole
K.
(
1991
)
Interaction of aminoglycosides with the outer membranes and purified lipopolysaccharide and OmpF porin of E. coli
.
Antimicrob. Agents Chemother.
35
,
1309
1314
.

[12]

Hirai
K.
Aoyama
H.
Irikura
T.
Iyobe
S.
Mitsuhashi
S.
(
1986
)
Differences in susceptibility to quinolones of outer membrane mutants of S. typhimurium and E. coli
.
Antimicrob. Agents Chemother.
29
,
535
538
.

[13]

Hancock
R.E.W.
Bell
A.
(
1988
)
Antibiotic uptake into gram negative bacteria
.
Eur. J. Clin. Microbiol. Infect. Dis.
7
,
713
720
.

[14]

Davies
N.G.
Model
P.
(
1985
)
An artificial anchor domain, hydrophobicity suffices to stop transfer
.
Cell
41
,
607
614
.

[15]

Tommassen
J.
(
1988
)
Biogenesis and membrane topology of outer membrane proteins in E. coli
.
In membrane Biogenesis
,
NATO ASI series
,
Vol. 16
, (
Op den Kamp
J.A.F.
, Ed.) pp.
351
373
.
Springer
,
Berlin
.

[16]

Gierasch
L.M.
(
1989
)
Signal sequences
.
Biochemistry
28
,
923
930
.

[17]

Tommassen
J.
Struyve
M.
De Cock
H.
(
1992
)
Export and assembly of bacterial outer membrane proteins
.
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
61
,
81
85
.

[18]

Wantanabe
M.
Blobel
G.
(
1989
)
SecB functions as a cytosolic signal recognition factor for protein export in E. coli
.
Cell
58
,
695
705
.

[19]

Collier
D.N.
Bankaitis
V.A.
Weiss
J.B.
Bassford
P.J.
(
1988
)
The anti-folding activity of SecB promotes the export of the E. coli maltose binding protein
.
Cell
53
,
273
283
.

[20]

Oliver
D.B.
(
1993
)
SecA, autoregulated ATPase catalysing preprotein insertion and translocation across the E. coli inner membrane
.
Mol. Microbiol.
7
,
159
165
.

[21]

De Cock
H.
Hendricks
D.
Vrije
T.
Tommassen
J.
(
1990
)
Assembly of in vitro synthesised E. coli outer membrane porin into its stable trimeric conformation
.
J Biol. Chem.
265
,
4646
4651
.

[22]

Liu
G.
Topping
T.B.
Randall
L.L.
(
1989
)
Physiological role during export for the retardation of folding by the leader peptide of maltose binding protein
.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
,
86
,
9213
9217
.

[23]

Driessen
A.J.M.
Wit
J.G.
Kuiper
W.
Wolk
J.P.W.
Fekkes
P.
Does
C.
Wely
K.
Manting
E.
Blaauwen
T.
(
1995
)
SecA, a novel ATPase that converts chemical energy into a mechanical force to drive precursor protein translocation
.
Biochem. Soc. Trans.
23
,
981
985
.

[24]

Phoenix
D.A.
Kusters
R.
Hikita
C.
Mizushima
S.
Kruijff
B.
(
1993
)
OmpF-Lpp signal sequence mutants with varying charge, hydrophobicity ratios provide evidence for phosphatidylglycerol-signal sequence interaction during protein translocation across the E. coli inner membrane
.
J. Biol. Chem.
268
,
17069
17073
.

[25]

Phoenix
D.A.
Wolf
F.A.
Staffhorst
R.W.H.M.
Hikita
C.
Mizushima
S.
Kruijff
B.
(
1993
)
Phosphatidyl-glycerol dependent translocation across the E. coli inner membrane is inhibited by the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin
.
FEBS Lett.
324
,
113
116
.

[26]

De Cock
H.
Tommassen
J.
(
1991
)
Efficient export of prePhoE in vivo requires the products of the sec genes
. In:
Ph.D. thesis
(
de Cock
H.
)
University of Utrecht
.

[27]

Schatz
G.
Dobberstein
B.
(
1996
)
Common principles of protein translocation across membranes
.
Science
271
,
1519
1526
.

[28]

Bosch
D.
Leunissen
J.
Verbakel
J.
Jong
M.
Erp
H.
Tommassen
J.
(
1986
)
Periplasmic accumulation of truncated forms of the PhoE outer membrane protein of E. coli
.
J. Mol. Biol.
189
,
449
455
.

[29]

Freudle
R.
Schwarz
H.
Klose
M.
Movva
N.R.
Henning
U.
(
1985
)
The nature of information required for export and sorting of the outer membrane protein OmpA of E. coli K-12
.
EMBO J.
4
,
3593
3598
.

[30]

De Cock
H.
Hekstra
D.
Tommassen
J.
(
1990
)
In vitro trimerisation of the outer membrane protein PhoE
.
Biochimie
72
,
177
182
.

[31]

Wiese
A.
Schroder
G.
Brandeburg
K.
Hirsch
A.
Welte
W.
Seydel
U.
(
1994
)
Influence of the lipid matrix and the incorporation and function of LPS free porin from Paracoccus dentrificans
.
Biochim. Biophys. Acta
1190
,
231
242
.

[32]

Jeanteur
D.
Lakey
J.H.
Pattus
F.
(
1991
)
The bacterial porin superfamily: sequence alignment and structure prediction
.
Mol. Microbiol.
5
,
2153
2164
.

[33]

Klose
M.
Schwarz
H.
MacIntyre
S.
Freudl
R.
Eschbach
M.L.
Henning
U.
(
1988
)
Internal deletions in the gene for an E. coli outer membrane protein defines an area possibly important for recognition of the outer membrane by this polypeptide
.
J. Biol. Chem.
263
,
13291
13296
.

[34]

Struyve
M.
Moons
M.
Tommassen
J.
(
1991
)
Carboxy-terminal phenylalanine is essential for the correct assembly of a bacterial outer membrane protein
.
J. Mol. Biol.
218
,
141
148
.

[35]

De Cock
H.
Quaedvlieg
N.
Bosch
D.
Scholten
M.
Tommassen
J.
(
1991
)
Glycine 144 is required for the efficient folding of outer membrane protein PhoE of E. coli K-12
.
FEBS Lett.
279
,
285
288
.

This content is only available as a PDF.