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Volume 146, Issue 6

The porin FomA possesses the general topology of the non-specific porins Free

Abstract

FomA is a major non-specific porin of with no sequence similarity to other known porins. According to the topology model, the protein consists of 16 transmembrane β-strands, connected by eight surface-exposed loops and seven periplasmic turns. In this study, the insertion mutagenesis approach was applied to probe the topology model. A Semliki Forest Virus (SFV) epitope was successfully inserted at 11 different sites of the FomA protein and a 6-aa insertion was successfully inserted at two different sites. Correct folding of the mutant proteins and proper incorporation into the outer membrane were assessed by heat modifiability and by an porin activity assay. Immunofluorescence microscopy analysis of intact cells, using mAbs directed against the inserted SFV epitope, revealed that three of the eight putative extracellular loops are indeed surface-exposed. Trypsin accessibility experiments confirmed the cell surface exposure of two additional loops. The results support the proposed topology model, showing that FomA possesses the general β-barrel topology of the non-specific porins, with the interesting exception that the third loop does not seem to fulfil the role of a constriction loop.

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  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): epitope insertion mutagenesis , Fusobacterium nucleatum , mFomA, mutant FomA , OMP, outer-membrane protein , outer-membrane proteins , porins , SFV, Semliki Forest Virus , topology and wtFomA, wild-type FomA
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2000-06-01
2024-04-18
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The Fusobacterium nucleatum porin FomA possesses the general topology of the non-specific porins
Microbiology 146, 1437 (2000); https://doi.org/10.1099/00221287-146-6-1437
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/00221287-146-6-1437
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