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

Mechanism of the binding, insertion and destabilization of phospholipid bilayer membranes by alpha-helical antimicrobial and cell non-selective membrane-lytic peptides.

Peptides and proteins have been found to possess an inherent tendency to convert from their native functional states into intractable amyloid aggregates. This phenomenon is associated with a range of increasingly common human disorders, including Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases, type II diabetes, and a number of systemic amyloidoses. In this review, we describe this field of science with particular reference to the advances that have been made over the last decade in our understanding of its fundamental nature and consequences. We list the proteins that are known to be deposited as amyloid or other types of aggregates in human tissues and the disorders with which they are associated, as well as the proteins that exploit the amyloid motif to play specific functional roles in humans. In addition, we summarize the genetic factors that have provided insight into the mechanisms of disease onset. We describe recent advances in our knowledge of the structures of amyloid fibrils and their oligomeric precursors a...

Protein Misfolding, Amyloid Formation, and Human Disease: A Summary of Progress Over the Last Decade

▪ Abstract Stably folded membrane proteins reside in a free energy minimum determined by the interactions of the peptide chains with each other, the lipid bilayer hydrocarbon core, the bilayer interface, and with water. The prediction of three-dimensional structure from sequence requires a detailed understanding of these interactions. Progress toward this objective is summarized in this review by means of a thermodynamic framework for describing membrane protein folding and stability. The framework includes a coherent thermodynamic formalism for determining and describing the energetics of peptide-bilayer interactions and a review of the properties of the environment of membrane proteins—the bilayer milieu. Using a four-step thermodynamic cycle as a guide, advances in three main aspects of membrane protein folding energetics are discussed: protein binding and folding in bilayer interfaces, transmembrane helix insertion, and helix-helix interactions. The concepts of membrane protein stability that emerge p...

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MEMBRANE PROTEIN FOLDING AND STABILITY: Physical Principles

50 Years of Image Analysis

We describe a full structural model for amyloid fibrils formed by the 40-residue β-amyloid peptide associated with Alzheimer's disease (Aβ1–40), based on numerous constraints from solid state NMR and electron microscopy. This model applies specifically to fibrils with a periodically twisted morphology, with twist period equal to 120 ± 20 nm (defined as the distance between apparent minima in fibril width in negatively stained transmission electron microscope images). The structure has threefold symmetry about the fibril growth axis, implied by mass-per-length data and the observation of a single set of 13C NMR signals. Comparison with a previously reported model for Aβ1–40 fibrils with a qualitatively different, striated ribbon morphology reveals the molecular basis for polymorphism. At the molecular level, the 2 Aβ1–40 fibril morphologies differ in overall symmetry (twofold vs. threefold), the conformation of non-β-strand segments, and certain quaternary contacts. Both morphologies contain in-register parallel β-sheets, constructed from nearly the same β-strand segments. Because twisted and striated ribbon morphologies are also observed for amyloid fibrils formed by other polypeptides, such as the amylin peptide associated with type 2 diabetes, these structural variations may have general implications. 

Alzheimer's disease
electron microscopy
solid state NMR
amyloid structure
protein misfolding

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/105/47/18349.full.pdf

Molecular structural basis for polymorphism in Alzheimer's β-amyloid fibrils

We describe solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements on fibrils formed by the 40-residue β-amyloid peptide associated with Alzheimer's disease (Aβ1-40) that place constraints on the identity and symmetry of contacts between in-register, parallel β-sheets in the fibrils. We refer to these contacts as internal and external quaternary contacts, depending on whether they are within a single molecular layer or between molecular layers. The data include (1) two-dimensional 13C-13C NMR spectra that indicate internal quaternary contacts between side chains of L17 and F19 and side chains of I32, L34, and V36, as well as external quaternary contacts between side chains of I31 and G37; (2) two-dimensional 15N-13C NMR spectra that indicate external quaternary contacts between the side chain of M35 and the peptide backbone at G33; (3) measurements of magnetic dipole−dipole couplings between the side chain carboxylate group of D23 and the side chain amine group of K28 that indicate salt bridge interact...

/pdf/experimental-constraints-on-quaternary-structure-in-56zrnj6jni.pdf

Experimental Constraints on Quaternary Structure in Alzheimer's β-Amyloid Fibrils†

Molecular Structure of β-Amyloid Fibrils in Alzheimer’s Disease Brain Tissue

One of the ubiquitous features of membrane proteins is the preference of tryptophan and tyrosine residues for membrane surfaces that presumably arises from enhanced stability due to distinct interfacial interactions. The physical basis for this preference is widely believed to arise from amphipathic interactions related to imino group hydrogen bonding and/or dipole interactions. We have examined these and other possibilities for tryptophan's interfacial preference by using 1H magic angle spinning (MAS) chemical shift measurements, two-dimensional (2D) nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy (2D-NOESY) 1H MAS NMR, and solid state 2H NMR to study the interactions of four tryptophan analogues with phosphatidylcholine membranes. We find that the analogues reside in the vicinity of the glycerol group where they all cause similar modest changes in acyl chain organization and that hydrocarbon penetration was not increased by reduction of hydrogen bonding or electric dipole interaction ability. These observations ...

The Preference of Tryptophan for Membrane Interfaces

The 37-residue amylin peptide, also known as islet amyloid polypeptide, forms fibrils that are the main peptide or protein component of amyloid that develops in the pancreas of type 2 diabetes patients. Amylin also readily forms amyloid fibrils in vitro that are highly polymorphic under typical experimental conditions. We describe a protocol for the preparation of synthetic amylin fibrils that exhibit a single predominant morphology, which we call a striated ribbon, in electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy images. Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements on a series of isotopically labeled samples indicate a single molecular structure within the striated ribbons. We use scanning transmission electron microscopy and several types of one- and two-dimensional solid-state NMR techniques to obtain constraints on the peptide conformation and supramolecular structure in these amylin fibrils and to derive molecular structural models that are consistent with the experimental data. The basic structural unit in amylin striated ribbons, which we call the protofilament, contains four layers of parallel beta-sheets, formed by two symmetric layers of amylin molecules. The molecular structure of amylin protofilaments in striated ribbons closely resembles the protofilament in amyloid fibrils with a similar morphology formed by the 40-residue beta-amyloid peptide that is associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Wai-Ming Yau

Papers

Molecular structural basis for polymorphism in Alzheimer's β-amyloid fibrils

Experimental Constraints on Quaternary Structure in Alzheimer's β-Amyloid Fibrils†

Molecular Structure of β-Amyloid Fibrils in Alzheimer’s Disease Brain Tissue

The Preference of Tryptophan for Membrane Interfaces

Peptide conformation and supramolecular organization in amylin fibrils: constraints from solid-state NMR.