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Bacterial physiology

Stressed? Time to vesiculate...

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 5, page 86 (2007)Cite this article

Gram-negative bacteria bud off outer membrane-derived vesicles that contain periplasmic components throughout growth. Although these vesicles can mediate virulence protein export, a more general physiological role for vesicle production has remained elusive. Now, McBroom and Kuehn show that vesiculation is a regulated response to envelope stress.

Stressors such as oxidants, metals and heat can damage bacterial cells, and stress leads to the toxic accumulation of misfolded proteins in the cell envelope. In Escherichia coli (and other Gram-negative bacteria) several complementary extracytoplasmic pathways are activated in response to envelope stress to protect cells. These include the σE pathway (responds to misfolded outer-membrane proteins), the Cpx pathway (monitors cell-surface-protein assembly), the Psp system (senses dissipation of the proton motive force) and the Bae pathway (responds to antimicrobial compounds). These survival pathways are also considered to be crucial to bacterial pathogens because pathogens are subjected to envelope stress during the infection process.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. McBroom, A. J. & Kuehn, M. J. Release of outer membrane vesicles by Gram-negative bacteria is a novel envelope stress response Mol. Microbiol. 63, 545–558 (2007)

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  1. Susan Jones
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Jones, S. Stressed? Time to vesiculate.... Nat Rev Microbiol 5, 86 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1608

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1608

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