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Caltech researchers get first 3-D glimpse of bacterial cell-wall architecture
Date:11/17/2008

eluded the scientists, however, because trying to image such tiny biological objects has been beyond their technological reach. Until now, that is.

"Six years ago, a gift from the Moore Foundation allowed us to buy what is arguably the world's best electron cryomicroscope," says Jensen. "This allowed us to take a different kind of picture of small biological objects than has ever been possible before. These pictures are 3-D images to molecular resolution--you can actually start to see individual biological molecules. Using it, we were able to see this network of glycan strands. It was just remarkable."

By pairing the electron cryotomography and a purification technique that involved removing the sacculi and flattening them in a very thin layer of water, postdoctoral scholar Lu Gan, the paper's first author, was able to image the peptidoglycan structure in three dimensions, which allows for a virtual 3-D tour of the bacterial sacculus.

"What we saw were long skinny tubes wrapping around the bag like the ribs of a person or a belt around the waist," says Jensen. "We also saw that the sacculus is just a single layer thick."

"This is a clear answer to this old question," adds Gan. "We now know what the architecture of this most basic shape-determining molecule is. We now know the right answer versus having a family of answers, some of which are wrong."

Understanding how the cell wall is built is important, says Jensen, because scientists have long been in the dark about some of the most basic physical and mechanical aspects of bacterial life, including why they are shaped the way they are. "It's hard to understand how a building is constructed unless you can see the studs," he explains. "Now that we can see the studs--now that we can see the basic architecture of the sacculus--we're closer to understanding how a bacterium could direct its own growth, and how drugs that block that process might work."


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Contact: Lori Oliwenstein
lorio@caltech.edu
626-395-3631
California Institute of Technology
Source:Eurekalert

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