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Cell biology

Making membranes in bacteria

Nature volume 406, pages 575–577 (2000)Cite this article

But, on page 637 of this issue1, Samuelson and colleagues describe yet another translocase, called YidC, which inserts proteins into the inner membrane of bacteria. Their results provide further support for a bacterial origin of mitochondria and chloroplasts.

Bacteria use translocases not only to insert proteins into membranes, but also to move proteins through the membranes to the outside of the cell. Most bacterial proteins secreted in this way use a general translocase called SecYEG to move across the inner (plasma) membrane2,3. This type of movement is said to be Sec-dependent. Another translocase, the Tat system, exports several proteins that contain firmly bound co-factors into the space between the inner and outer bacterial membranes4. Many proteins that remain in the plasma membrane are also inserted in a Sec-dependent manner (Fig. 1).

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Figure 1: Pathways of protein translocation across, and insertion into, the bacterial inner membrane.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Biology Department Marquette University, 530 North 15th Street, Milwaukee, 53233, Wisconsin, USA

    Rosemary A. Stuart

  2. the Institut für Physiologische Chemie der Universität München, Goethestrasse 33, München, D-80336, Germany

    Walter Neupert

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  1. Rosemary A. Stuart
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  2. Walter Neupert
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Correspondence to Rosemary A. Stuart or Walter Neupert.

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Stuart, R., Neupert, W. Making membranes in bacteria. Nature 406, 575–577 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35020668

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