Patterns in nature—S-layer lattices of bacterial and archaeal cells

Abstract

Bacterial surface layers (S-layers) have been observed as the outermost cell envelope component in a wide range of bacteria and most archaea. S-layers are monomolecular lattices composed of a single protein or glycoprotein species and have either oblique, square or hexagonal lattice symmetry with unit cell dimensions ranging from 3 to 30 nm. They are generally 5 to 10 nm thick (up to 70 nm in archaea) and represent highly porous protein lattices (30–70% porosity) with pores of uniform size and morphology in the range of 2 to 8 nm. Since S-layers can be considered as one of the simplest protein lattices found in nature and the constituent units are probably the most abundantly expressed proteins on earth, it seems justified to briefly review the different S-layer lattice types, the need for lattice imperfections and the discussion of S-layers from the perspective of an isoporous protein network in the ultrafiltration region. Finally, basic research on S-layers laid the foundation for applications in biotechnology, synthetic biology, and biomimetics.