Gram-negative bacteria characteristically are surrounded by an additional membrane layer, the outer membrane. Although outer membrane components often play important roles in the interaction of symbiotic or pathogenic bacteria with their host organisms, the major role of this membrane must usually be to serve as a permeability barrier to prevent the entry of noxious compounds and at the same time to allow the influx of nutrient molecules. This review summarizes the development in the field since our previous review (H. Nikaido and M. Vaara, Microbiol. Rev. 49:1-32, 1985) was published. With the discovery of protein channels, structural knowledge enables us to understand in molecular detail how porins, specific channels, TonB-linked receptors, and other proteins function. We are now beginning to see how the export of large proteins occurs across the outer membrane. With our knowledge of the lipopolysaccharide-phospholipid asymmetric bilayer of the outer membrane, we are finally beginning to understand how this bilayer can retard the entry of lipophilic compounds, owing to our increasing knowledge about the chemistry of lipopolysaccharide from diverse organisms and the way in which lipopolysaccharide structure is modified by environmental conditions.

Molecular Basis of Bacterial Outer Membrane Permeability Revisited

Irrespective of the morphological features of end-stage cell death (that may be apoptotic, necrotic, autophagic, or mitotic), mitochondrial membrane permeabilization (MMP) is frequently the decisive event that delimits the frontier between survival and death. Thus mitochondrial membranes constitute the battleground on which opposing signals combat to seal the cell's fate. Local players that determine the propensity to MMP include the pro- and antiapoptotic members of the Bcl-2 family, proteins from the mitochondrialpermeability transition pore complex, as well as a plethora of interacting partners including mitochondrial lipids. Intermediate metabolites, redox processes, sphingolipids, ion gradients, transcription factors, as well as kinases and phosphatases link lethal and vital signals emanating from distinct subcellular compartments to mitochondria. Thus mitochondria integrate a variety of proapoptotic signals. Once MMP has been induced, it causes the release of catabolic hydrolases and activators of such enzymes (including those of caspases) from mitochondria. These catabolic enzymes as well as the cessation of the bioenergetic and redox functions of mitochondria finally lead to cell death, meaning that mitochondria coordinate the late stage of cellular demise. Pathological cell death induced by ischemia/reperfusion, intoxication with xenobiotics, neurodegenerative diseases, or viral infection also relies on MMP as a critical event. The inhibition of MMP constitutes an important strategy for the pharmaceutical prevention of unwarranted cell death. Conversely, induction of MMP in tumor cells constitutes the goal of anticancer chemotherapy.

Mitochondrial Membrane Permeabilization in Cell Death

In order to obtain a novel binding protein against a chosen target, DNA molecules, each encoding a protein comprising one of a family of similar potential binding domains and a structural signal calling for the display of the protein on the outer surface of a chosen bacterial cell, bacterial spore or phage (genetic package) are introduced into a genetic package. The protein is expressed and the potential binding domain is displayed on the outer surface of the package. The cells or viruses bearing the binding domains which recognize the target molecule are isolated and amplified. The successful binding domains are then characterized. One or more of these successful binding domains is used as a model for the design of a new family of potential binding domains, and the process is repeated until a novel binding domain having a desired affinity for the target molecule is obtained. In one embodiment, the first family of potential binding domains is related to bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor, the genetic package is M13 phage, and the protein includes the outer surface transport signal of the M13 gene III protein.

Directed evolution of novel binding proteins

Bacteriocins of gram-positive bacteria.

Mechanical forces associated with blood flow play important roles in the acute control of vascular tone, the regulation of arterial structure and remodeling, and the localization of atherosclerotic lesions. Major regulation of the blood vessel responses occurs by the action of hemodynamic shear stresses on the endothelium. The transmission of hemodynamic forces throughout the endothelium and the mechanotransduction mechanisms that lead to biophysical, biochemical, and gene regulatory responses of endothelial cells to hemodynamic shear stresses are reviewed.

/pdf/flow-mediated-endothelial-mechanotransduction-281f54bq52.pdf

Flow-mediated endothelial mechanotransduction

The membrane are of giant algal cells of Valonia utricularis was determined electrically by using the charge-pulse technique. The membrane was charged to low voltages between 2 and 20 mV by injecting charge pulses of defined amplitude and very short duration (about 100 ns). The injected charge was calculated by measuring the current increment via a potential drop across a 10 Ω resistance in the outer circuit and by considering the preselected charging time. The initial voltage across the membrane was calculated by extrapolation to time zero (=end of the charge pulse). From the values of the injected charge and the voltage built up initially across the membrane, the capacitance of the membrane could be calculated. Assuming that the specific capacity of the two membranes, tonoplast and plasmalemma, arranged in series was 0.5 μF cm-2, the membrane area could be derived from the membrane capacity. The electrically determined membrane area agrees with the geometrically determined one to within 10%.

A new electrical method for the determination of the cell membrane area in plant cells

C2-toxin from Clostridium botulinum and Iota-toxin from Clostridium perfringens belong both to the binary A-B-type of toxins consisting of two separately secreted components, an enzymatic subunit A and a binding component B that facilitates the entry of the corresponding enzymatic subunit into the target cells. The enzymatic subunits are in both cases actin ADP-ribosyltransferases that modify R177 of globular actin finally leading to cell death. Following their binding to host cells’ receptors and internalization, the two binding components form heptameric channels in endosomal membranes which mediate the translocation of the enzymatic components Iota a and C2I from endosomes into the cytosol of the target cells. The binding components form ion-permeable channels in artificial and biological membranes. Chloroquine and related 4-aminoquinolines were able to block channel formation in vitro and intoxication of living cells. In this study, we extended our previous work to the use of different chloroquine analogs and demonstrate that positively charged aminoquinolinium salts are able to block channels formed in lipid bilayer membranes by the binding components of C2- and Iota-toxin. Similarly, these molecules protect cultured mammalian cells from intoxication with C2- and Iota-toxin. The aminoquinolinium salts did presumably not interfere with actin ADP-ribosylation or receptor binding but blocked the pores formed by C2IIa and Iota b in living cells and in vitro. The blocking efficiency of pores formed by Iota b and C2IIa by the chloroquine analogs showed interesting differences indicating structural variations between the types of protein-conducting nanochannels formed by Iota b and C2IIa.

Chloroquine Analog Interaction with C2- and Iota-Toxin in Vitro and in Living Cells

Bacterial porins facilitate the passive uptake of small solutes across the outer membrane of the cell. The channel properties and the primary structure of the porin from Paracoccus denitrificans were investigated. As judged from single-channel conductance experiments, this porin forms trimeric pores that show no ion selectivity in potassium chloride solution, which indicates that the charges within or near the channel are balanced. Based on peptide fragment sequence, the gene porG, which codes for this general pore protein, was cloned and analyzed. Its primary translation product contains a 20-residue signal sequence, followed by the 295 amino acids of the mature protein with a molecular mass of 31.9 kDa. Sequence alignments with porins from Rhodopseudomonas blastica and Rhodobacter capsulatus and secondary structure predictions suggest a typical rigid barrel structure consisting of 16 antiparallel beta-strands.

https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1432-1033.1997.00300.x

Molecular Cloning and Functional Characterization of the Paracoccus Denitrificans Porin

Porins were purified from cells of the anaerobic gram-negative bacterium Pelobacter venetianus grown with 20-kDa polyethylene glycol. After treatment of the cell envelope fraction with sodium dodecyl sulfate-containing solutions, the murein contained only two major peptidoglycan-associated proteins of 14 and 23 kDa. Both proteins were released from the peptidoglycan by the detergent Triton X-100. Genapol X-80 released only the 23-kDa protein. This protein was purified by chromatography on a hydroxyapatite column. It did not form sodium dodecyl sulfate-resistant oligomers. Reconstituted in lipid bilayer membranes, the 23-kDa protein formed cation-selective channels with a single-channel conductance of 230 pS in 1 M KCl. The channel is not a general-diffusion pore, since its conductance depends only moderately on the salt concentration. The channel conducted ammonium much better than potassium or rubidium ions, suggesting that it is probably involved in ammonium uptake. The outer membrane of P. venetianus contains a further, non-murein-associated pore with an unknown molecular mass. It is also cationically selective and has a single-channel conductance of 1.6 nS in 1 M KCl, which suggests that its effective diameter is similar to that of porins from enteric bacteria.

Identification of two porins in Pelobacter venetianus fermenting high-molecular-mass polyethylene glycols.

A-B types of toxins are among the most potent bacterial protein toxins produced by gram-positive bacteria. Prominent examples are the tripartite anthrax toxin of Bacillus anthracis and the different A-B type clostridial toxins that are the causative agents of severe human and animal diseases and could serve as biological weapons. The components of all these toxins comprise one binding/transport (B) subunit and one or two separate, non-linked enzymatically active (A) subunits. The A and B subunits are separately produced and secreted by the pathogenic gram-positive bacteria and must assemble on the surface of eukaryotic target cells to form biologically active toxin complexes. The B components are cleaved by proteases to generate the biologically active species that binds to receptors on the surface of the target cells and form there oligomers which bind the A subunits. The AB complexes are internalized by receptor-mediated endocytosis and reach early or late endosomes that become acidified. Subsequently, the B components form channels in endosomal membranes that are indispensable for the transport of the enzymatic subunits across these membranes into the cytosol of target cells via the trans-membrane channels. In addition to the channels formed by the B components, host cell factors including chaperones and further folding helper enzymes are involved in the import of the enzymatic subunits into the cytosol of eukaryotic cells. Positively charged heterocyclic molecules, such as chloroquine and related aminoquinolinium and azolopyridinium salts have been shown in recent years to bind with high affinity to the channels formed by the B components of binary toxins. Since binding to the B components is also a prerequisite for transport of the A components across the endosomal membranes the channel blockers also prevent transport of the A subunits into the host cell cytosol. The inhibition of toxin uptake into cells by such pharmacological compounds should also be of clinically interest because the toxins are the major virulence factors causing anthrax on the one hand and severe enteric disease on the other hand. Therefore, the novel toxin inhibitors should be attractive compounds for an application in combination with antibiotics to prevent or treat the diseases associated with binary toxins. Here the different processes involved in channel block in vitro and inhibition of intoxication of living target cells are reviewed in some detail.

Roland Benz

Papers

A new electrical method for the determination of the cell membrane area in plant cells

Chloroquine Analog Interaction with C2- and Iota-Toxin in Vitro and in Living Cells

Molecular Cloning and Functional Characterization of the Paracoccus Denitrificans Porin

Identification of two porins in Pelobacter venetianus fermenting high-molecular-mass polyethylene glycols.

Toxin Transport by A-B Type of Toxins in Eukaryotic Target Cells and Its Inhibition by Positively Charged Heterocyclic Molecules