Bacterial Intracellular Membranes

John F Stolz, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Published online: July 2007

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0000303.pub2

This article describes the occurrence, structure, arrangement and function of bacterial intracytoplasmic membranes (ICMS) including magnetosomes of magnetotactic bacteria, the thylakoids of cyanobacteria and chloroxybacteria, the ICMS of purple bacteria and chemoautotrophic bacteria and the chlorosomes of green bacteria.

Keywords: thylakoids; phycobilisomes; intracytoplasmic membrane (ICM); chlorosome

Figure 1. Examples of thylakoid and intracytoplasmic membrane (ICM) arrangement in phototrophic prokaryotes. (a) Radially arranged thylakoids in the filamentous cyanobacterium Microcoleus chthonoplastes, bar 250 nm; (b) thylakoids in the coccoid cyanobacterium Entophysalis major showing a triangular arrangement in cross-section, bar is 500 nm; (c) peripherally arranged thylakoids in the filamentous cyanobacterium Phormidium sp., bar is 100 nm; (d) tubular bundles of ICMs in a Thiocapsa sp., bar is 250 nm; (e) vesicular ICMs in a Rhodobacter sp., bar is 250 nm; (f ) lamellar arrangement of membranes with chlorosomes in an Oscillochloris sp., bar is 100 nm.
close
 References
    Blakemore RP (1982) Magnetotactic bacteria. Annual Review of Microbiology 36: 217–238.
    book Drews G and Golecki JR (1995) "Structure, molecular organization, and biosynthesis of membranes by purple bacteria". In: Blankenship RE, Madigan MT and Bauer CE (eds) Anoxygenic Photosynthetic Bacteria, pp. 231–257. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers
    book Gray KA and Daldal F (1995) "Mutational studies of the cytochrome b/c1 complexes". In: Blankenship RE, Madigan MT and Bauer CE (eds) Anoxygenic Photosynthetic Bacteria, pp. 747–774. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers
    Grossman AR, Schaefer MR, Chiang GG and Collier JL (1993) The phycobilisome, a light-harvesting complex responsive to environmental conditions. Microbiological Reviews 57: 725–749.
    Grünberg K, Wawer C, Tebo BM and Schüler D (2001) A large gene cluster encoding several magnetosome proteins is conserved in different species of magnetotactic bacteria. Applied Environmental Microbiology 67: 4573–4582.
    book Hanert HH (1989) "Nonbudding, stalked bacteria". In: Staley JT, Bryant MP, Pfennig N and Holt JG (eds) Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology, pp. 1974–1979. Baltimore, MD: William & Wilkins
    book Hirsch P (1989) "Genus crenothrix". In: Staley JT, Bryant MP, Pfennig N and Holt JG (eds) Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology, pp. 2006–2008. Baltimore, MD: William & Wilkins
    Komeili A, Vali H, Beveridge TJ and Newman DK (2004) Magnetosome vesicles are present before magnetite formation, and MamA is required for their activation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 101: 3839–3844.
    Prust C, Hoffmeister M, Liesegang H et al. (2005) Complete genome sequence of the acetic acid bacterium Gluconobacter oxydans. Nature Biotechnology 23: 195–200.
    Scheffel A, Gruska M, Faivre D et al. (2006) An acidic protein aligns magnetosomes along a filamentous structure in magnetotactic bacteria. Nature 440: 110–114.
    Scheuring S, Sturgis JN, Prima V et al. (2004) Watching the photosynthetic apparatus in native membranes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 101: 11293–11297.
    book Sprague S and Fuller RC (1991) "The green phototrophic bacteria and heliobacteria". In: Stolz JF (ed.) Structure of Phototrophic Prokaryotes, pp. 79–104. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press
    Stoecker K, Bendinger B, Schoening B et al. (2006) Cohn's Crenothrix is a filamentous methane oxidizer with an unusual monooxygenase. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 103: 2363–2367.
    book Watson SW, Bock E, Harms H, Koops H-P and Hooper AB (1989) "Nitrifying bacteria". In: Staley JT, Bryant MP, Pfennig N and Holt JG (eds) Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology, pp. 1808–1834. Baltimore, MD: William & Wilkins
    White SA and Claus GW (1982) Effect of intracytoplasmic membrane development on oxidation of sorbitol and other polyols by Gluconobacter oxydans. Journal of Bacteriology 150: 934–943.
    book Whittenbury R and Krieg NR (1989) "Methylococcaceae". In: Staley JT, Bryant MP, Pfennig N and Holt JG (eds) Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology, pp. 256–260. Baltimore, MD: William & Wilkins
 Further Reading
    book Blankenship RE, Madigan MT and Bauer CE (eds) (1995) Anoxygenic Photosynthetic Bacteria. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
    book Brenner DJ, Krieg NR and Staley JT (eds) (2004) Bergey's Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, 2nd edn. New York: Springer.
    book Madigan MT and Martinko JM (2006) Brock Biology of Microorganisms, 11th edn. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice-Hall.
    book Stolz JF (ed) (1991) Structure of Phototrophic Prokaryotes. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Related Sub-Topics:

Composition and Structure of Microbial Cells | Bacteria
Contact Editor close
Submit a note to the editor about this article by filling in the form below.

* Required Field

Article Title: Bacterial Intracellular Membranes
 
How to Cite close
Stolz, John F(Jul 2007) Bacterial Intracellular Membranes. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0000303.pub2]