Single-molecule analysis of the entire perfringolysin O pore formation pathway
Abstract
The cholesterol-dependent cytolysin perfringolysin O (PFO) is secreted by Clostridium perfringens as a bacterial virulence factor able to form giant ring-shaped pores that perforate and ultimately lyse mammalian cell membranes. To resolve the kinetics of all steps in the assembly pathway, we have used single-molecule fluorescence imaging to follow the dynamics of PFO on dye-loaded liposomes that lead to opening of a pore and release of the encapsulated dye. Formation of a long-lived membrane-bound PFO dimer nucleates the growth of an irreversible oligomer. The growing oligomer can insert into the membrane and open a pore at stoichiometries ranging from tetramers to full rings (~35-mers), whereby the rate of insertion increases linearly with the number of subunits. Oligomers that insert before the ring is complete continue to grow by monomer addition post insertion. Overall, our observations suggest that PFO membrane insertion is kinetically controlled.
Data availability
The image analysis software is available at https://github.com/lilbutsa/JIM-Immobilized-Microscopy-Suite. Microscopy image stacks for Figure 1 and Figures 3-8; files containing single-molecule tracks extracted from all image stacks for Figure 2 (single-molecule binding); and a representative subset of image stacks recorded for Figure 2 are available on Dryad (doi: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8w9ghx3q4). The complete set of image stacks collected for Figure 2 is too large (>10 TB) to be included in this repository such that these data are stored on the UNSW data archive (data management plan number D0240569) and can be obtained for research (including commercial) by submitting a request to research.soms@unsw.edu.au.
-
Single-molecule analysis of the entire perfringolysin O pore formation pathwayDryad Digital Repository, doi:10.5061/dryad.8w9ghx3q4.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Health and Medical Research Council (APP1182212)
- Till Böcking
Australian Research Council (FT150100049)
- Michelle A Dunstone
National Health and Medical Research Council (APP1194263)
- Michael W Parker
Australian Research Council (DP160101874)
- Michael W Parker
Australian Research Council (DP200102871)
- Craig J Morton
- Michael W Parker
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2022, McGuinness et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 1,789
- views
-
- 390
- downloads
-
- 6
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Further reading
-
- Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
N 6,2’-O-dimethyladenosine (m6Am) is a modified nucleotide located at the first transcribed position in mRNA and snRNA that is essential for diverse physiological processes. m6Am mapping methods assume each gene uses a single start nucleotide. However, gene transcription usually involves multiple start sites, generating numerous 5’ isoforms. Thus, gene-level annotations cannot capture the diversity of m6Am modification in the transcriptome. Here, we describe CROWN-seq, which simultaneously identifies transcription-start nucleotides and quantifies m6Am stoichiometry for each 5’ isoform that initiates with adenosine. Using CROWN-seq, we map the m6Am landscape in nine human cell lines. Our findings reveal that m6Am is nearly always a high stoichiometry modification, with only a small subset of cellular mRNAs showing lower m6Am stoichiometry. We find that m6Am is associated with increased transcript expression and provide evidence that m6Am may be linked to transcription initiation associated with specific promoter sequences and initiation mechanisms. These data suggest a potential new function for m6Am in influencing transcription.
-
- Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
- Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
African trypanosomes are the causative agents of neglected tropical diseases affecting both humans and livestock. Disease control is highly challenging due to an increasing number of drug treatment failures. African trypanosomes are extracellular, blood-borne parasites that mainly rely on glycolysis for their energy metabolism within the mammalian host. Trypanosomal glycolytic enzymes are therefore of interest for the development of trypanocidal drugs. Here, we report the serendipitous discovery of a camelid single-domain antibody (sdAb aka Nanobody) that selectively inhibits the enzymatic activity of trypanosomatid (but not host) pyruvate kinases through an allosteric mechanism. By combining enzyme kinetics, biophysics, structural biology, and transgenic parasite survival assays, we provide a proof-of-principle that the sdAb-mediated enzyme inhibition negatively impacts parasite fitness and growth.