Probing the Two Orientations of Pal in Vesiculating E. coli

Abstract

Peptidoglycan associated lipoprotein (Pal) is an outer membrane protein from Gram‐negative bacteria, including Escherichia coli (E. coli). E. coli has two subpopulations of Pal: a periplasmic subpopulation bound to peptidoglycan and a surface exposed subpopulation. When the bacteria are cultured under normal conditions in rich media, only a small percentage of cells contain surface exposed Pal. Under more stressful culture conditions (ex. increased temperature, the presence of antibiotics), E. coli will release outer membrane vesicles (OMVs). Using ultracentrifugation and immunoblotting, we have shown that Pal is released from E. coli in these OMV's. We also used flow cytometry to measure the surface exposed Pal subpopulations in hyper‐vesiculating E. coli cells and their OMVs. Preliminary data suggest that the surface exposed Pal subpopulations are increased in vesiculating cells and OMVs.Support or Funding InformationReceived: Rochester Institute of Technology FEAD grant to Dr. Lea Vacca Michel Applying for: RIT Honors program $500 travel stipend to Nicole Pannullo Applying for: RIT National Technical Institute for the Deaf Student Travel Award to Nicole PannulloThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.