scholarly journals Single-molecule imaging in live bacteria cells

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1611) ◽  
pp. 20120355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Ritchie ◽  
Yoriko Lill ◽  
Chetan Sood ◽  
Hochan Lee ◽  
Shunyuan Zhang

Bacteria, such as Escherichia coli and Caulobacter crescentus , are the most studied and perhaps best-understood organisms in biology. The advances in understanding of living systems gained from these organisms are immense. Application of single-molecule techniques in bacteria have presented unique difficulties owing to their small size and highly curved form. The aim of this review is to show advances made in single-molecule imaging in bacteria over the past 10 years, and to look to the future where the combination of implementing such high-precision techniques in well-characterized and controllable model systems such as E. coli could lead to a greater understanding of fundamental biological questions inaccessible through classic ensemble methods.

1995 ◽  
Vol 347 (1319) ◽  
pp. 21-25 ◽  

Over the past three or four years, great strides have been made in our understanding of the proteins involved in recombination and the mechanisms by which recombinant molecules are formed. This review summarizes our current understanding of the process by focusing on recent studies of proteins involved in the later steps of recombination in bacteria. In particular, biochemical investigation of the in vitro properties of the E. coli RuvA, RuvB and RuvC proteins have provided our first insight into the novel molecular mechanisms by which Holliday junctions are moved along DNA and then resolved by endonucleolytic cleavage.


1985 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 611-618
Author(s):  
Naomi Datta

SUMMARYThe study of Escherichia coli and its plasmids and bacteriophages has provided a vast body of genetical information, much of it relevant to the whole of biology. This was true even before the development of the new techniques, for cloning and analysing DNA, that have revolutionized biological research during the past decade. Thousands of millions of dollars are now invested in industrial uses of these techniques, which all depend on discoveries made in the course of academic research on E. coli. Much of the background of knowledge necessary for the cloning and expression of genetically engineered information, as well as the techniques themselves, came from work with this organism.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrike Endesfelder

Abstract Bacteria as single-cell organisms are important model systems to study cellular mechanisms and functions. In recent years and with the help of advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques, immense progress has been made in characterizing and quantifying the behavior of single bacterial cells on the basis of molecular interactions and assemblies in the complex environment of live cultures. Importantly, single-molecule imaging enables the in vivo determination of the stoichiometry and molecular architecture of subcellular structures, yielding detailed, quantitative, spatiotemporally resolved molecular maps and unraveling dynamic heterogeneities and subpopulations on the subcellular level. Nevertheless, open challenges remain. Here, we review the past and current status of the field, discuss example applications and give insights into future trends.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Won Jung ◽  
Peng Chen

AbstractTranscription regulator on-off binding to DNA constitutes a mechanistic paradigm in gene regulation, in which the repressors/activators bind to operator sites tightly while the corresponding non-repressors/non-activators do not. Another paradigm regards regulator unbinding from DNA to be a unimolecular process whose kinetics is independent of regulator concentration. Using single-molecule single-cell measurements, we find that the behaviors of the zinc-responsive uptake regulator Zur challenges these paradigms. Apo-Zur, a non-repressor and presumed non-DNA binder, can bind to chromosome tightly in live E. coli cells, likely at non-consensus sequence sites. Moreover, the unbinding from DNA of its apo-non-repressor and holo-repressor forms both show a biphasic, repressed-followed-by-facilitated kinetics with increasing cellular protein concentrations. The facilitated unbinding likely occurs via a ternary complex formation mechanism; the repressed unbinding is first-of-its-kind and likely results from protein oligomerization on chromosome, in which an inter-protein salt-bridge plays a key role. This biphasic unbinding could provide functional advantages in Zur's facile switching between repression and derepression.


2016 ◽  
Vol 110 (3) ◽  
pp. 20a-21a
Author(s):  
Mathew Stracy ◽  
Christian Lesterlin ◽  
Stephan Uphoff ◽  
Pawel Zawadzki ◽  
Achillefs N. Kapanidis

Author(s):  
E. Loren Buhle ◽  
Pamela Rew ◽  
Ueli Aebi

While DNA-dependent RNA polymerase represents one of the key enzymes involved in transcription and ultimately in gene expression in procaryotic and eucaryotic cells, little progress has been made towards elucidation of its 3-D structure at the molecular level over the past few years. This is mainly because to date no 3-D crystals suitable for X-ray diffraction analysis have been obtained with this rather large (MW ~500 kd) multi-subunit (α2ββ'ζ). As an alternative, we have been trying to form ordered arrays of RNA polymerase from E. coli suitable for structural analysis in the electron microscope combined with image processing. Here we report about helical polymers induced from holoenzyme (α2ββ'ζ) at low ionic strength with 5-7 mM MnCl2 (see Fig. 1a). The presence of the ζ-subunit (MW 86 kd) is required to form these polymers, since the core enzyme (α2ββ') does fail to assemble into such structures under these conditions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolas Hundt

Abstract Single-molecule imaging has mostly been restricted to the use of fluorescence labelling as a contrast mechanism due to its superior ability to visualise molecules of interest on top of an overwhelming background of other molecules. Recently, interferometric scattering (iSCAT) microscopy has demonstrated the detection and imaging of single biomolecules based on light scattering without the need for fluorescent labels. Significant improvements in measurement sensitivity combined with a dependence of scattering signal on object size have led to the development of mass photometry, a technique that measures the mass of individual molecules and thereby determines mass distributions of biomolecule samples in solution. The experimental simplicity of mass photometry makes it a powerful tool to analyse biomolecular equilibria quantitatively with low sample consumption within minutes. When used for label-free imaging of reconstituted or cellular systems, the strict size-dependence of the iSCAT signal enables quantitative measurements of processes at size scales reaching from single-molecule observations during complex assembly up to mesoscopic dynamics of cellular components and extracellular protrusions. In this review, I would like to introduce the principles of this emerging imaging technology and discuss examples that show how mass-sensitive iSCAT can be used as a strong complement to other routine techniques in biochemistry.


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