Reconstitution of Outer Membrane Protein Assembly from Purified Components

Abstract

Bring Out the β-Barrel The assembly of β-barrel membrane proteins, which are found in the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria and in the mitochondria and chloroplasts of eukaryotes, is poorly understood. Now Hagan et al. (p. 890 , published online 8 April; see the Perspective by Stroud et al. ) describe the development of a reconstituted system that recapitulates the process of assembly of β-barrel membrane proteins by the Escherichia coli Bam complex. The assembly of a protein substrate required the purified five-protein Bam complex and several subcomplexes and a chaperone, but did not require an external input of energy.