Cryo-EM as a tool to study bacterial efflux systems and the membrane proteome

Antibiotic resistance is an emerging threat to global health. Current treatment regimens for these types of bacterial infections are becoming increasingly inadequate. Thus, new innovative technologies are needed to help identify and characterize novel drugs and drug targets which are critical in order to combat multidrug-resistant bacterial strains. Bacterial efflux systems have emerged as an attractive target for drug design, as blocking their export function significantly increases the potency of administered antibiotics. However, in order to develop potent and tolerable efflux pump inhibitors with high efficacy, detailed structural information is required for both the apo- and substrate-bound forms of these membrane proteins. The emergence of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has greatly advanced the field of membrane protein structural biology. It has significantly enhanced the ability to solve large multi-protein complexes as well as extract meaningful data from a heterogeneous sample, such as identification of several assembly states of the bacterial ribosome, from a single data set. This technique can be expanded to solve the structures of substrate-bound efflux pumps and entire efflux systems from previously unusable membrane protein sample preparations. Subsequently, cryo-EM combined with other biophysical techniques has the potential to markedly advance the field of membrane protein structural biology. The ability to discern complete transport machineries, enzymatic signal transduction pathways, and other membrane-associated complexes will help us fully understand the complexities of the membrane proteome.