Measurement of macromolecular crowding in rhodobacter sphaeroides under different growth conditions

The bacterial cytoplasm is a very crowded environment, and changes in crowding are thought to have an impact on cellular processes including protein folding, molecular diffusion and complex formation. Previous studies on the effects of crowding have generally compared cellular activity after imposit...

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Main Authors: Khoo, JH, Miller, H, Armitage, JP
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: American Society for Microbiology 2022
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author Khoo, JH
Miller, H
Armitage, JP
author_facet Khoo, JH
Miller, H
Armitage, JP
author_sort Khoo, JH
collection OXFORD
description The bacterial cytoplasm is a very crowded environment, and changes in crowding are thought to have an impact on cellular processes including protein folding, molecular diffusion and complex formation. Previous studies on the effects of crowding have generally compared cellular activity after imposition of stress. In response to different light intensities, in unstressed conditions, Rhodobacter sphaeroides changes the number of 50-nm intracytoplasmic membrane (ICM) vesicles, with the number varying from a few to over a thousand per cell. In this work, the effects of crowding induced by ICM vesicles in photoheterotrophic R. sphaeroides were investigated using a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) sensor and photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM). In low light grown cells where the cytoplasm has large numbers of ICM vesicles, the FRET probe adopts a more condensed conformation, resulting in higher FRET ratio readouts compared to high light cells with fewer ICM vesicles. The apparent diffusion coefficients of different sized proteins, PAmCherry, PAmCherry-CheY6, and L1-PAmCherry, measured via PALM showed that diffusion of protein molecules >27 kDa decreased as the number of ICM vesicles increased. In low light R. sphaeroides where the crowding level is high, protein molecules were found to diffuse more slowly than in aerobic and high light cells. This suggests that some physiological activities might show different kinetics in bacterial species whose intracellular membrane organization can change with growth conditions.
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spelling oxford-uuid:1bad024d-1628-493a-9c50-06cdf01a6c062022-08-05T09:14:51ZMeasurement of macromolecular crowding in rhodobacter sphaeroides under different growth conditionsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:1bad024d-1628-493a-9c50-06cdf01a6c06EnglishSymplectic ElementsAmerican Society for Microbiology2022Khoo, JHMiller, HArmitage, JPThe bacterial cytoplasm is a very crowded environment, and changes in crowding are thought to have an impact on cellular processes including protein folding, molecular diffusion and complex formation. Previous studies on the effects of crowding have generally compared cellular activity after imposition of stress. In response to different light intensities, in unstressed conditions, Rhodobacter sphaeroides changes the number of 50-nm intracytoplasmic membrane (ICM) vesicles, with the number varying from a few to over a thousand per cell. In this work, the effects of crowding induced by ICM vesicles in photoheterotrophic R. sphaeroides were investigated using a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) sensor and photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM). In low light grown cells where the cytoplasm has large numbers of ICM vesicles, the FRET probe adopts a more condensed conformation, resulting in higher FRET ratio readouts compared to high light cells with fewer ICM vesicles. The apparent diffusion coefficients of different sized proteins, PAmCherry, PAmCherry-CheY6, and L1-PAmCherry, measured via PALM showed that diffusion of protein molecules >27 kDa decreased as the number of ICM vesicles increased. In low light R. sphaeroides where the crowding level is high, protein molecules were found to diffuse more slowly than in aerobic and high light cells. This suggests that some physiological activities might show different kinetics in bacterial species whose intracellular membrane organization can change with growth conditions.
spellingShingle Khoo, JH
Miller, H
Armitage, JP
Measurement of macromolecular crowding in rhodobacter sphaeroides under different growth conditions
title Measurement of macromolecular crowding in rhodobacter sphaeroides under different growth conditions
title_full Measurement of macromolecular crowding in rhodobacter sphaeroides under different growth conditions
title_fullStr Measurement of macromolecular crowding in rhodobacter sphaeroides under different growth conditions
title_full_unstemmed Measurement of macromolecular crowding in rhodobacter sphaeroides under different growth conditions
title_short Measurement of macromolecular crowding in rhodobacter sphaeroides under different growth conditions
title_sort measurement of macromolecular crowding in rhodobacter sphaeroides under different growth conditions
work_keys_str_mv AT khoojh measurementofmacromolecularcrowdinginrhodobactersphaeroidesunderdifferentgrowthconditions
AT millerh measurementofmacromolecularcrowdinginrhodobactersphaeroidesunderdifferentgrowthconditions
AT armitagejp measurementofmacromolecularcrowdinginrhodobactersphaeroidesunderdifferentgrowthconditions