The Starch Utilization System Assembles around Stationary Starch-Binding Proteins

Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (Bt) is a prominent member of the human gut microbiota with an extensive capacity for glycan harvest. This bacterium expresses a five-protein complex in the outer membrane, called the starch utilization system (Sus), which binds, degrades, and imports starch into the cell. Sus is a model system for the many glycan-targeting polysaccharide utilization loci found in Bt and other members of the Bacteroidetes phylum. Our previous work has shown that SusG, a lipidated amylase in the outer membrane, explores the entire cell surface but diffuses more slowly as it interacts with starch. Here, we use a combination of single-molecule tracking, super-resolution imaging, reverse genetics, and proteomics to show that SusE and SusF, two proteins that bind starch, are immobile on the cell surface even when other members of the system are knocked out and under multiple different growth conditions. This observation suggests a new paradigm for protein complex formation: binding proteins form immobile complexes that transiently associate with a mobile enzyme partner.

Resolving Fast, Confined Diffusion in Bacteria with Image Correlation Spectroscopy

By following single fluorescent molecules in a microscope, single-particle tracking (SPT) can measure diffusion and binding on the nanometer and millisecond scales. Still, although SPT can at its limits characterize the fastest biomolecules as they interact with subcellular environments, this measurement may require advanced illumination techniques such as stroboscopic illumination. Here, we address the challenge of measuring fast subcellular motion by instead analyzing single-molecule data with spatiotemporal image correlation spectroscopy (STICS) with a focus on measurements of confined motion. Our SPT and STICS analysis of simulations of the fast diffusion of confined molecules shows that image blur affects both STICS and SPT, and we find biased diffusion rate measurements for STICS analysis in the limits of fast diffusion and tight confinement due to fitting STICS correlation functions to a Gaussian approximation. However, we determine that with STICS, it is possible to correctly interpret the motion that blurs single-molecule images without advanced illumination techniques or fast cameras. In particular, we present a method to overcome the bias due to image blur by properly estimating the width of the correlation function by directly calculating the correlation function variance instead of using the typical Gaussian fitting procedure. Our simulation results are validated by applying the STICS method to experimental measurements of fast, confined motion: we measure the diffusion of cytosolic mMaple3 in living Escherichia coli cells at 25 frames/s under continuous illumination to illustrate the utility of STICS in an experimental parameter regime for which in-frame motion prevents SPT and tight confinement of fast diffusion precludes stroboscopic illumination. Overall, our application of STICS to freely diffusing cytosolic protein in small cells extends the utility of single-molecule experiments to the regime of fast confined diffusion without requiring advanced microscopy techniques.

Addressing the Requirements of High-Sensitivity Single-Molecule Imaging of Low-Copy-Number Proteins in Bacteria

Single-molecule fluorescence super-resolution imaging and tracking provide nanometer-scale information about subcellular protein positions and dynamics. These single-molecule imaging experiments can be very powerful, but they are best suited to high-copy number proteins where many measurements can be made sequentially in each cell. We describe artifacts associated with the challenge of imaging a protein expressed in only a few copies per cell. We image live Bacillus subtilis in a fluorescence microscope, and demonstrate that under standard single-molecule imaging conditions, unlabeled B. subtilis cells display punctate red fluorescent spots indistinguishable from the few PAmCherry fluorescent protein single molecules under investigation. All Bacillus species investigated were strongly affected by this artifact, whereas we did not find a significant number of these background sources in two other species we investigated, Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli. With single-molecule resolution, we characterize the number, spatial distribution, and intensities of these impurity spots.

Anionic Phospholipids Stabilize RecA Filament Bundles in Escherichia coli

We characterize the interaction of RecA with membranes in vivo and in vitro and demonstrate that RecA binds tightly to the anionic phospholipids cardiolipin (CL) and phosphatidylglycerol (PG). Using computational models, we identify two regions of RecA that interact with PG and CL: (1) the N-terminal helix and (2) loop L2. Mutating these regions decreased the affinity of RecA to PG and CL in vitro. Using 3D super-resolution microscopy, we demonstrate that depleting Escherichia coli PG and CL altered the localization of RecA foci and hindered the formation of RecA filament bundles. Consequently, E. coli cells lacking aPLs fail to initiate a robust SOS response after DNA damage, indicating that the membrane acts as a scaffold for nucleating the formation of RecA filament bundles and plays an important role in the SOS response.

Dynamic self-assembly of motile bacteria in liquid crystals

This paper reports an investigation of dynamical behaviors of motile rod-shaped bacteria within anisotropic viscoelastic environments defined by lyotropic liquid crystals (LCs). In contrast to passive microparticles (including non-motile bacteria) that associate irreversibly in LCs via elasticity-mediated forces, we report that motile Proteus mirabilis bacteria form dynamic and reversible multi-cellular assemblies when dispersed in a lyotropic LC. By measuring the velocity of the bacteria through the LC (8.8 ± 0.2 μm s(-1)) and by characterizing the ordering of the LC about the rod-shaped bacteria (tangential anchoring), we conclude that the reversibility of the inter-bacterial interaction emerges from the interplay of forces generated by the flagella of the bacteria and the elasticity of the LC, both of which are comparable in magnitude (tens of pN) for motile Proteus mirabilis cells. We also measured the dissociation process, which occurs in a direction determined by the LC, to bias the size distribution of multi-cellular bacterial complexes in a population of motile Proteus mirabilis relative to a population of non-motile cells. Overall, these observations and others reported in this paper provide insight into the fundamental dynamic behaviors of bacteria in complex anisotropic environments and suggest that motile bacteria in LCs are an exciting model system for exploration of principles for the design of active materials.

Bacteria-surface interactions

The interaction of bacteria with surfaces has important implications in a range of areas, including bioenergy, biofouling, biofilm formation, and the infection of plants and animals. Many of the interactions of bacteria with surfaces produce changes in the expression of genes that influence cell morphology and behavior, including genes essential for motility and surface attachment. Despite the attention that these phenotypes have garnered, the bacterial systems used for sensing and responding to surfaces are still not well understood. An understanding of these mechanisms will guide the development of new classes of materials that inhibit and promote cell growth, and complement studies of the physiology of bacteria in contact with surfaces. Recent studies from a range of fields in science and engineering are poised to guide future investigations in this area. This review summarizes recent studies on bacteria-surface interactions, discusses mechanisms of surface sensing and consequences of cell attachment, provides an overview of surfaces that have been used in bacterial studies, and highlights unanswered questions in this field.

Measuring the stiffness of bacterial cells from growth rates in hydrogels of tunable elasticity

Although bacterial cells are known to experience large forces from osmotic pressure differences and their local microenvironment, quantitative measurements of the mechanical properties of growing bacterial cells have been limited. We provide an experimental approach and theoretical framework for measuring the mechanical properties of live bacteria. We encapsulated bacteria in agarose with a user-defined stiffness, measured the growth rate of individual cells and fit data to a thin-shell mechanical model to extract the effective longitudinal Young's modulus of the cell envelope of Escherichia coli (50-150 MPa), Bacillus subtilis (100-200 MPa) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (100-200 MPa). Our data provide estimates of cell wall stiffness similar to values obtained via the more labour-intensive technique of atomic force microscopy. To address physiological perturbations that produce changes in cellular mechanical properties, we tested the effect of A22-induced MreB depolymerization on the stiffness of E. coli. The effective longitudinal Young's modulus was not significantly affected by A22 treatment at short time scales, supporting a model in which the interactions between MreB and the cell wall persist on the same time scale as growth. Our technique therefore enables the rapid determination of how changes in genotype and biochemistry affect the mechanical properties of the bacterial envelope.

Polyacrylamide hydrogels as substrates for studying bacteria

Polyacrylamide hydrogels can be used as chemically and physically defined substrates for bacterial cell culture, and enable studies of the influence of surfaces on cell growth and behaviour.

Quorum sensing between Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms accelerates cell growth

This manuscript describes the fabrication of arrays of spatially confined chambers embossed in a layer of poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) and their application to studying quorum sensing between communities of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We hypothesized that biofilms may produce stable chemical signaling gradients in close proximity to surfaces, which influence the growth and development of nearby microcolonies into biofilms. To test this hypothesis, we embossed a layer of PEGDA with 1.5-mm wide chambers in which P. aeruginosa biofilms grew, secreted homoserine lactones (HSLs, small molecule regulators of quorum sensing), and formed spatial and temporal gradients of these compounds. In static growth conditions (i.e., no flow), nascent biofilms secreted N-(3-oxododecanoyl) HSL that formed a gradient in the hydrogel and was detected by P. aeruginosa cells that were ≤8 mm away. Diffusing HSLs increased the growth rate of cells in communities that were <3 mm away from the biofilm, where the concentration of HSL was >1 μM, and had little effect on communities farther away. The HSL gradient had no observable influence on biofilm structure. Surprisingly, 0.1-10 μM of N-(3-oxododecanoyl) HSL had no effect on cell growth in liquid culture. The results suggest that the secretion of HSLs from a biofilm enhances the growth of neighboring cells in contact with surfaces into communities and may influence their composition, organization, and diversity.

Kishner's Reduction of 2-Furylhydrazone Gives 2-Methylene-2,3-dihydrofuran, a Highly Reactive Ene in the Ene Reaction

[reaction: see text] The Kishner reduction of 2-furylhydrazone gives 2-methylene-2,3-dihydrofuran as the major abnormal reduction product. 2-Methylene-2,3-dihydrofuran is an excellent ene in the carbonyl-ene reaction, reacting with a variety of aldehydes. Most notable was the asymmetric carbonyl-ene reaction of 2-methylene-2,3-dihydrofuran and decanal using Ti(OCH(CH3)2)4/(S)-BINOL to give the corresponding alcohol in 66% yield and 94% ee. The reaction of 2-methylene-2,3-dihydrofuran with 2 equiv of 1,4-benzoquinone unexpectedly gave a monoalkylated 1,4-hydroquinone/1,4-benzoquinone electron donor-acceptor complex.