Morphology of the archaellar motor and associated cytoplasmic cone in Thermococcus kodakaraensis

Archaeal swimming motility is driven by archaella: rotary motors attached to long extracellular filaments. The structure of these motors, and particularly how they are anchored in the absence of a peptidoglycan cell wall, is unknown. Here, we use electron cryotomography to visualize the archaellar basal body in vivo in Thermococcus kodakaraensis KOD1. Compared to the homologous bacterial type IV pilus (T4P), we observe structural similarities as well as several unique features. While the position of the cytoplasmic ATPase appears conserved, it is not braced by linkages that extend upward through the cell envelope as in the T4P, but rather by cytoplasmic components that attach it to a large conical frustum up to 500 nm in diameter at its base. In addition to anchoring the lophotrichous bundle of archaella, the conical frustum associates with chemosensory arrays and ribosome‐excluding material and may function as a polar organizing center for the coccoid cells

Molecular biology and genetics of the acetate-utilizing methanogenic bacteria

Acetate conversion to methane and C0{sub 2} by the methanogenic archaebacteria is a primary rate limiting step in anaerobic biodegradative processes in nature. However, the genetic study of these organisms has not been experimentally tractable due to the inability to grow and plate the organisms as single cells, and to extract high molecular weight DNA and RNA without shearing. The acetate-utilizing species, Methanosarcina thermolphila TM-1, is being used for the proposed genetic and molecular studies because, unlike previously described acetotrophic methanosarcina that have a thick heteropolysaccharide cell wall, this species can be cultured in a unicellular form that has a protein cell wall lacking the heteropolysaccharide layer. These cells can be gently disrupted to obtain protoplasts or lysed to yield intact genomic DNA and RNA. Experiments are in progress to develop a gene transfer system in this bacterial species. Methods are being developed and refined for the efficient plating of M. thermophila on defined media, for chemical mutagenesis, and for the isolation of mutants defective in acetate utilization. Chromosomal DNA libraries have been constructed from M. thermophila and are being used to clone genes involved in the acetate utilization pathway (e.g. carbon monoxide dehydrogenase). Once cloned, analysis of the molecular mechanisms responsible for their regulatory control will be performed. These studies should aid our understanding of the pathway for acetate utilization in M. thermophila and serve as a model for elucidating regulatory mechanisms in the acetotrophic methanogens

Glycine betaine transport in the obligate halophilic archaeon Methanohalophilus portucalensis

Transport of the osmoprotectant glycine betaine was investigated using the glycine betaine-synthesizing microbe Methanohalophilus portucalensis (strain FDF1), since solute uptake for this class of obligate halophilic methanogenic Archaea has not been examined. Betaine uptake followed a Michaelis-Menten relationship,,vith an observed K-t of 23 mu M and a V-max of 8 nmol per min per mg of protein. The transport system was highly specific for betaine: choline, proline, and dimethylglycine did not significantly compete for [C-14]betaine uptake. The proton-conducting uncoupler 2,4-dinitrophenol and the ATPase inhibitor N,N-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide both inhibited glycine betaine uptake. Growth of cells in the presence of 500 mu M betaine resulted in faster cell growth due to the suppression of the de novo synthesis of the other compatible solutes, alpha-glutamate, beta-glutamine, and N-e-acetyl-beta-lysine. These investigations demonstrate that this model halophilic methanogen, M. portucalensis strain FDF1, possesses a high-affinity and highly specific betaine transport system that allows it to accumulate this osmoprotectant from the environment in lien of synthesizing this or other osmoprotectants under high-salt growth conditions

Structural conservation of chemotaxis machinery across Archaea and Bacteria

FWN – Publicaties zonder aanstelling Universiteit Leide

Physiology, ecology, phylogeny, and genomics of microorganisms capable of syntrophic metabolism

Syntrophic metabolism is diverse in two respects: phylogenetically with microorganisms capable of syntrophic metabolism found in the Deltaproteobacteria and in the low G+C gram-positive bacteria, and metabolically given the wide variety of compounds that can be syntrophically metabolized. The latter includes saturated fatty acids, unsaturated fatty acids, alcohols, and hydrocarbons. Besides residing in freshwater and marine anoxic sediments and soils, microbes capable of syntrophic metabolism also have been observed in more extreme habitats, including acidic soils, alkaline soils, thermal springs, and permanently cold soils, demonstrating that syntrophy is a widely distributed metabolic process in nature. Recent ecological and physiological studies show that syntrophy plays a far larger role in carbon cycling than was previously thought. The availability of the first complete genome sequences for four model microorganisms capable of syntrophic metabolism provides the genetic framework to begin dissecting the biochemistry of the marginal energy economies and interspecies interactions that are characteristic of the syntrophic lifestyl

Morphology of the archaellar motor and associated cytoplasmic cone in Thermococcus kodakaraensis

Microbial Biotechnolog