Analyzing the role of periplasmic folding factors in the biogenesis of OMPs and members of the type V secretion system

Abstract

The outer membrane (OM) of gram-negative bacteria is highly packed with OM proteins (OMPs) and the trafficking and assembly of OMPs in gram-negative bacteria is a subject of intense research. Structurally, OMPs vary in the number of β-strands and in the size and complexity of extra-membrane domains, with extreme examples being the members of the type V protein secretion system (T5SS), such as the autotransporter (AT) and intimin/invasin families of secreted proteins, in which a large extracellular “passenger” domain is linked to a β-barrel that inserts in the OM. Despite their structural and functional diversity, OMPs interact in the periplasm with a relatively small set of protein chaperones that facilitate their transport from the inner membrane (IM) to the β-barrel assembly machinery (BAM complex), preventing aggregation and assisting their folding in various aspects including disulfide bond formation. This chapter is focused on the periplasmic folding factors involved in the biogenesis of integral OMPs and members of T5SS in E. coli, which are used as a model system in this field. Background information on these periplasmic folding factors is provided along with genetic methods to generate conditional mutants that deplete these factors from E. coli and biochemical methods to analyze the folding, surface display, disulfide formation and oligomerization state of OMPs/T5SS in these mutants.