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Journal of Bacteriology, October 2008, p. 6805-6810, Vol. 190, No. 20
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00640-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Chemoreceptors in Caulobacter crescentus: Trimers of Receptor Dimers in a Partially Ordered Hexagonally Packed Array{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Cezar M. Khursigara,1 Xiongwu Wu,2 and Sriram Subramaniam1*

Laboratory of Cell Biology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892,1 Laboratory of Computational Biology, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 208922

Received 7 May 2008/ Accepted 25 July 2008

Chemoreceptor arrays are macromolecular complexes that form extended assemblies primarily at the poles of bacterial cells and mediate chemotaxis signal transduction, ultimately controlling cellular motility. We have used cryo-electron tomography to determine the spatial distribution and molecular architecture of signaling molecules that comprise chemoreceptor arrays in wild-type Caulobacter crescentus cells. We demonstrate that chemoreceptors are organized as trimers of receptor dimers, forming partially ordered hexagonally packed arrays of signaling complexes in the cytoplasmic membrane. This novel organization at the threshold between order and disorder suggests how chemoreceptors and associated molecules are arranged in signaling assemblies to respond dynamically in the activation and adaptation steps of bacterial chemotaxis.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Laboratory of Cell Biology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bldg. 50, Rm. 4306, Bethesda, MD 20892. Phone: (301) 594-2062. Fax: (301) 480-3834. E-mail: ss1{at}nih.gov

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 8 August 2008.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/.

Journal of Bacteriology, October 2008, p. 6805-6810, Vol. 190, No. 20
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00640-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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