Building New Function Into a Bacterial Microcompartment (IMAGE)

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Building New Function Into a Bacterial Microcompartment

Caption

The shell of a bacterial microcompartment (or BMC) is mainly composed of hexagonal proteins, with pentagonal proteins capping the vertices, similar to a soccer ball (left). Scientists have engineered one of these hexagonal proteins, normally devoid of any metal center, to bind an iron-sulfur cluster (orange and yellow sticks, upper right). This cluster can serve as an electron relay to transfer electrons across the shell. Introducing this new functionality in the shell of a BMC greatly expands their possibilities as custom-made bio-nanoreactors.

Credit

Clement Aussignargues/MSU; Cheryl Kerfeld and Markus Sutter/Berkeley Lab

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