Towards understanding the molecular mechanism of cardiolipin transport in : interactions between an Salmonella typhimurium essential inner membrane protein YejM and its newly found ligand, YejL

is responsible for over 35% of all foodborne illness Salmonella typhimurium related hospitalizations in the United States. This Gram-negative bacterium possesses an inner and an outer membrane (OM), the latter allowing its survival and replication within host tissues. During infection, OM is remodeled by transport of glycerophospholipids across the periplasm and into the OM. Increased levels of cardiolipin in the OM were observed upon PhoPQ activation and led to the discovery of YejM; an inner membrane protein essential for cell growth involved in cardiolipin binding and transport to the OM. Another protein that might be playing a role in cardiolipin transport is YejL, as its gene is localized upstream of on the same operon. Here we report how yejm YejM was engineered to facilitate crystal growth and X-ray diffraction analysis. Furthermore, we present for the first time that YejL is a ligand for YejM. Successful structure determination of YejM and YejL will help us understand how they interact and how YejM facilitates cardiolipin transport to the OM. Ultimately, , being an essential gene, may lead to new drug targets yejm inhibiting the pathogenic properties of . S. typhimurium Susanne Ressl ( ) Corresponding author: [email protected] Gabale U, Qian G, Roach E and Ressl S. How to cite this article: Towards understanding the molecular mechanism of cardiolipin transport in : interactions between an essential inner membrane protein YejM and its newly found ligand, YejL Salmonella typhimurium 2016, :1086 (doi: ) [version 1; referees: 1 approved, 1 not approved] F1000Research 5 10.12688/f1000research.8647.1 © 2016 Gabale U . This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the , which Copyright: et al Creative Commons Attribution Licence permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The author(s) declared that no grants were involved in supporting this work. Grant information: Competing interests: No competing interests were disclosed. 02 Jun 2016, :1086 (doi: ) First published: 5 10.12688/f1000research.8647.1 Referee Status: