- PMID:
29476011 , Related PDB ids: 4d64, 5nxr, 5nxu, 4d65, 5n9i, 5n9h, 5nxn
- Authors:
- El-Khatib M, Nasrallah C, Lopes J, Tran QT, Tetreau G, Basbous H, Fenel D, Gallet B, Lethier M, Bolla JM, Pages JM, Vivaudou M, Weik M, Winterhalter M, Colletier JP
- Title:
- Porin self-association enables cell-to-cell contact in Providencia stuartii floating communities.
- Journal:
- Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 Mar 6;115(10):E2220-E2228. doi:, 10.1073/pnas.1714582115. Epub 2018 Feb 23.
- Abstract:
- The gram-negative pathogen Providencia stuartii forms floating communities within which adjacent cells are in apparent contact, before depositing as canonical surface-attached biofilms. Because porins are the most abundant proteins in the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria, we hypothesized that they could be involved in cell-to-cell contact and undertook a structure-function relationship study on the two porins of P. stuartii, Omp-Pst1 and Omp-Pst2. Our crystal structures reveal that these porins can self-associate through their extracellular loops, forming dimers of trimers (DOTs) that could enable cell-to-cell contact within floating communities. Support for this hypothesis was obtained by studying the porin-dependent aggregation of liposomes and model cells. The observation that facing channels are open in the two porin structures suggests that DOTs could not only promote cell-to-cell contact but also contribute to intercellular communication.