Biogenesis and Structure of a Type VI Secretion Membrane Core Complex

Overview

Journal Nature

Specialty Science

Date 2015 Jul 23

PMID 26200339

Citations 142

Authors

Eric Durand

Van Son Nguyen

Abdelrahim Zoued

Laureen Logger

Gerard Pehau-Arnaudet

Marie-Stephanie Aschtgen

Silvia Spinelli

Aline Desmyter

Benjamin Bardiaux

Annick Dujeancourt

Alain Roussel

Christian Cambillau

Eric Cascales

Remi Fronzes

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Bacteria share their ecological niches with other microbes. The bacterial type VI secretion system is one of the key players in microbial competition, as well as being an important virulence determinant during bacterial infections. It assembles a nano-crossbow-like structure in the cytoplasm of the attacker cell that propels an arrow made of a haemolysin co-regulated protein (Hcp) tube and a valine-glycine repeat protein G (VgrG) spike and punctures the prey's cell wall. The nano-crossbow is stably anchored to the cell envelope of the attacker by a membrane core complex. Here we show that this complex is assembled by the sequential addition of three type VI subunits (Tss)-TssJ, TssM and TssL-and present a structure of the fully assembled complex at 11.6 Å resolution, determined by negative-stain electron microscopy. With overall C5 symmetry, this 1.7-megadalton complex comprises a large base in the cytoplasm. It extends in the periplasm via ten arches to form a double-ring structure containing the carboxy-terminal domain of TssM (TssMct) and TssJ that is anchored in the outer membrane. The crystal structure of the TssMct-TssJ complex coupled to whole-cell accessibility studies suggest that large conformational changes induce transient pore formation in the outer membrane, allowing passage of the attacking Hcp tube/VgrG spike.

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