mSphere of Influence: Of lipoproteins and lipopolysaccharide

Cameron Roberts is a bacteriologist researching protein transport systems in bacteria. In this mSphere of Influence article, he highlights two studies on the transport of lipoproteins to the cell surface and their interaction with the lipopolysaccharide machinery in two divergent diderm bacteria, Escherichia coli (Luo et al.) and Borrelia burgdorferi (He et al.). These bacteria have very different outer membrane lipoprotein and lipopolysaccharide compositions, but both appear to have a connection between the lipopolysaccharide transport machinery and lipoproteins. One study provides strong evidence for the role of the lipopolysaccharide transport machinery in lipoprotein surface localization and the other shows data supporting a direct molecular interaction between these components. These works ultimately demonstrate the importance of scientific study in diverse model organisms and demonstrate that by studying what makes one species unique reveals unexpected commonalities with others.