a Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, TelAviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel; b Department of Biological Chemistry, Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904 Jerusalem, Israel; c Department of Chemical Engineering, Polymer Research Center, Life Sciences and Technologies Research Center, Boğa...

cloning and sequencing of a lipase gene from an indigenous bacillus pumilus, strain f3, revealed an open-reading frame of 648 nucleotides predicted to encode a protein of 215 residues. sequence analysis showed that f3 lipase contained a signal peptide composed of 34 amino acids with an h domain of 18 residues. a tat-like motif was found in the signal peptide similar to some other bacillus pumil...

In eukaryotes, disulphide bond formation and isomerization is catalysed in the endoplasmic reticulum by protein disulphide isomerase (PDI) and related proteins. Although this eukaryotic system has been intensely studied for almost 40 years, many questions remain unanswered. In 1991, it was discovered that disulphide bond formation in the prokaryotic periplasm is also a catalysed process (Bardwe...

The cell envelope of gram-negative bacteria consists of two membranes, the inner and the outer membrane, that are separated by the periplasm. The outer membrane consists of phospholipids, lipopolysaccharides, integral membrane proteins, and lipoproteins. These components are synthesized in the cytoplasm or at the inner leaflet of the inner membrane and have to be transported across the inner me...

Dissimilatory metal-reducing bacteria are able to conduct electrons from their cytoplasmic membrane across the periplasm and the outer membrane to redox proteins located on the surface of their cells. The Mtr respiratory pathway in Shewanella is the best-understood metal-reducing pathway to date. The core components of this pathway are well agreed upon, but are they sufficient? Could there be o...

The bacterial periplasm is of special interest whenever cell factories are designed and engineered. Recombinantely produced proteins are targeted to the periplasmic space of Gram negative bacteria to take advantage of the authentic N-termini, disulfide bridge formation and easy accessibility for purification with less contaminating cellular proteins. The oxidizing environment of the periplasm p...

Metal transport systems are broadly utilized to maintain low levels of metals to prevent cellular malfunction caused by an overabundance of metals. The CusCFBA Cu(I)/Ag(I) resistance system, commonly found in Gram-negative organisms, typically consists of a tripartite CBA transport complex that spans both the inner and outer membranes as well as a small periplasmic protein, CusF. In the CusCFBA...

The major facilitator superfamily represents the largest group of secondary membrane transporters in the cell. Here we report the 3.3 angstrom resolution structure of a member of this superfamily, GlpT, which transports glycerol-3-phosphate into the cytoplasm and inorganic phosphate into the periplasm. The amino- and carboxyl-terminal halves of the protein exhibit a pseudo two-fold symmetry. Cl...

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), a member of TNF family, is an interesting ligand which selectively induces apoptosis in tumor cells and, therefore, it has been developed for cancer therapy. This ligand has been produced by various hosts such as E.coli. However, protein expression in E.coli cytoplasm leads to problems such as incorrect folding, reduction in biolo...