CryoEM of bacterial secretion systems. (October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kooger, Romain; Szwedziak, Piotr; Böck, Désirée; Pilhofer, Martin
• Is Part Of: Current opinion in structural biology. Volume 52(2018)
• Page Start: 64
• Page End: 70
• Publication Date: 2018-10
• Subjects: Molecular biology -- Periodicals; 570
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sbi.2018.08.007
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0959-440X

Abstract

Highlights: Overview of the latest contributions of cryoEM to the field of secretion systems. Bacteria use secretion systems to interact with their environment. Both modalities of cryoEM, i.e., single particle analysis and tomography, have made key contributions to the study of secretion systems. As a result of increasing adoption and ongoing technological development, cryoEM will continue to be a major contributor to secretion systems studies. Abstract : The need for bacteria to interact with their environment has driven the evolution of elaborate secretion systems. By virtue of their function, secretion systems are macromolecular complexes associated with the cell envelope and therefore inherently difficult to study by conventional structural biology techniques. Cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) has become an invaluable technique to study large membrane-embedded complexes and led to major advances in the mechanistic understanding of secretion systems. CryoEM comprises of two main modalities, namely single particle analysis and tomography. Here, we review how detailed structures retrieved by single particle analysis combine elegantly with tomography experiments in which the secretion systems are observed in their native cellular context.