Establishment of the spiral shape of Rhodospiriullum rubrum (IMAGE)
Caption
The cells of R. rubrum (wild type) are naturally spirally curved. Without the gene that codes for the lipoprotein PapS, they take on a straight shape. The curvature of the cells is achieved by a helically coiled structure of porins in the outer cell membrane, which form a stable interaction with the lipoprotein PapS. These proteins accumulations enclose the biosynthetic machinery that is responsible for the formation of the cell wall and thus lead to locally increased cell elongation, causing the cell body to distort into a spiral shape.
Credit
Sebastian Pöhl (University of Marburg)
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