Specialized Cellular Compartments in Bacteria
Discovered By McGill Researchers
A new study suggests bacteria may not be as simple as once thought as researchers at McGill University discovered bacterial organelles involved in gene expression. New targets for the development of new antibiotics could be offered through this finding.
This research study is the first to show that E. coli regulates gene transcription using similar strategies like other more complex cell types and the paper is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Individual cells contain specialized compartments, such as energy-producing mitochondria called organelles, just like how the human body is made up of organs that perform specialized functions. Organelles are enclosed by a membrane that holds them together and complex cells contain many different organelles. Bacteria were assumed to lack all of these as bacteria do not have membrane-bound organelles.
The study is the first to show that bacteria do in fact have such specialized compartments and was carried out by Stephanie Weber, an assistant professor in McGill’s Department of Biology, and her team.
Weber, the study’s senior author said, “Evidence showing a bacterial organelle held together by “sticky” proteins rather than a membrane, is provided
in our paper.”Through a process called phase separation, the same phenomenon that causes oil and vinegar to separate in salad dressing, the bacterial organelles described in the study are formed in a similar fashion to membranes cellular compartments found in more complex eukaryotic cells (cells with a nucleus).
Weber explains, “In bacteria, this is the first direct evidence of phase separation, which suggests that it could even have been involved in the origin of life, and maybe a universal process in all cell types.”
In order to track the organelle-forming proteins, Weber’s team used an imaging technique called photoactivated localization microscopy because of the small size of the bacterial cells.
Now, the research team is trying to figure out how exactly the proteins assemble into organelles. For the development of a new generation of antibiotic drugs, which are urgently needed to combat drug resistance, Weber believes they might also be an interesting target because they’re involved in the first steps of gene expression—transcription.
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Specialized cellular compartments in bacteria discovered
