Tag: biological membranes

Mechanism for Vipp 1 spiral formation, ring biogenesis, and membrane repair

The ESCRT-III-like protein Vipp1 couples filament polymerization with membrane remodeling. It assembles planar sheets as well as 3D rings and helical polymers, all implicated in mitigating plastid-associated membrane stress. The architecture of Vipp1 planar sheets and helical polymers remains unknown, as do the geometric changes required to transition between polymeric forms. *

In the article “Mechanism for Vipp1 spiral formation, ring biogenesis, and membrane repair” Souvik Naskar, Andrea Merino, Javier Espadas, Jayanti Singh, Aurelien Roux, Adai Colom and Harry H. Low show how cyanobacterial Vipp1 assembles into morphologically-related sheets and spirals on membranes in vitro.*

The spirals converge to form a central ring similar to those described in membrane budding. Cryo-EM structures of helical filaments reveal a close geometric relationship between Vipp1 helical and planar lattices. Moreover, the helical structures reveal how filaments twist—a process required for Vipp1, and likely other ESCRT-III filaments, to transition between planar and 3D architectures. *

Overall, the authors’ results provide a molecular model for Vipp1 ring biogenesis and a mechanism for Vipp1 membrane stabilization and repair, with implications for other ESCRT-III systems. *

NanoWorld Ultra-Short Cantilevers USC-F0.3-k0.3  for High-Speed AFM (HS-AFM) with a typical spring constant of 0.3 N nm−1 and a typical resonance frequency of about 300 kHz were used for image acquisition with fast scanning atomic force microscopy.*

Fig. 2 from Souvik Naskar et al. 2024 “Mechanism for Vipp1 spiral formation, ring biogenesis, and membrane repair”:Vipp1 assembles dynamic networks of spirals, rings and sheets on membrane a, F-AFM phase timecourse showing Vipp1 recruitment to the highly curved edge of membrane patches. Scan rate, 70 Hz; 256 × 256 pixels. The area in the dashed box is enlarged in b. b, Spiral and ring formation localized to the membrane edge. Scan rate, 70 Hz; 256 × 256 pixels. c, Left, phase timecourse showcasing a dense network of sheets, spirals, and rings that ultimately cover the entire membrane plane. Right, average of six F-AFM height images. Scan rate, 120 Hz; 256 × 256 pixels. d, Average F-AFM height image showing Vipp1 sheet, spiral, and ring detail. Red arrows mark the sheet branching into filaments ~13 nm wide. Scan rate, 20 Hz; 256 × 256 pixels. e, Vipp1 sheet and spiral filament height offset from the membrane. f–i, Quantification of Vipp1 filament and spiral characteristics. n = 124, 13, 278, and 278 independent measurements for panels f, g, h, and i, respectively. Error bars show one s.d. of the mean. NanoWorld Ultra-Short Cantilevers USC-F0.3-k0.3-10 with a typical spring constant of 0.3 N nm−1 and a typical resonance frequency of about 300 kHz were used for image acquisition.
Fig. 2 from Souvik Naskar et al. 2024 “Mechanism for Vipp1 spiral formation, ring biogenesis, and membrane repair”:
Vipp1 assembles dynamic networks of spirals, rings and sheets on membrane
a, F-AFM phase timecourse showing Vipp1 recruitment to the highly curved edge of membrane patches. Scan rate, 70 Hz; 256 × 256 pixels. The area in the dashed box is enlarged in b. b, Spiral and ring formation localized to the membrane edge. Scan rate, 70 Hz; 256 × 256 pixels. c, Left, phase timecourse showcasing a dense network of sheets, spirals, and rings that ultimately cover the entire membrane plane. Right, average of six F-AFM height images. Scan rate, 120 Hz; 256 × 256 pixels. d, Average F-AFM height image showing Vipp1 sheet, spiral, and ring detail. Red arrows mark the sheet branching into filaments ~13 nm wide. Scan rate, 20 Hz; 256 × 256 pixels. e, Vipp1 sheet and spiral filament height offset from the membrane. f–i, Quantification of Vipp1 filament and spiral characteristics. n = 124, 13, 278, and 278 independent measurements for panels f, g, h, and i, respectively. Error bars show one s.d. of the mean.

*Souvik Naskar, Andrea Merino, Javier Espadas, Jayanti Singh, Aurelien Roux, Adai Colom and Harry H. Low
Mechanism for Vipp1 spiral formation, ring biogenesis, and membrane repair
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (2024)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-024-01401-8

Open Access The article “Mechanism for Vipp1 spiral formation, ring biogenesis, and membrane repair” by Souvik Naskar, Andrea Merino, Javier Espadas, Jayanti Singh, Aurelien Roux, Adai Colom and Harry H. Low is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

High-speed atomic force microscopy highlights new molecular mechanism of daptomycin action

The current pandemic is not the only health threat worldwide. Another worry is the increasing antibiotic resistance which increases the fear to run out of effective antibiotics.

This is one of the reasons why antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are gaining more and more interest.

The lipopeptide Daptomycin ( DAP ) has been therapeutically used as a last resort antibiotic against multidrug-resistant enterococci and staphylococci in the past. Unfortunately, some strains have become resistant to Dap in recent years. There still is a knowledge-gap on the details of Dap activity. It is therefore important to understand the structure-activity relationships of AMPs on membranes in order to develop more antibiotics of this type as a countermeasure to the spread of resistance.*

High Speed Atomic Force Microscopy ( HS-AFM ) makes it possible to observe dynamic biological processes on a molecular level.

In the article “High-speed atomic force microscopy highlights new molecular mechanism of daptomycin action” Francesca Zuttion, Adai Colom, Stefan Matile, Denes Farago, Frédérique Pompeo, Janos Kokavecz, Anne Galinier, James Sturgis and Ignacio Casuso describe how, by using the possibilities offered by high speed atomic force microscopy, they were able to confirm some up until now hypothetical models and additionally detected some previously unknown molecular mechanisms. *

The HS-AFM imaging made it possible for the authors to observe the development of the dynamics of interaction at the molecular-level over several hours. *

They investigated the lipopeptide Daptomycin under infection-like conditions and could confirm Dap oligomerization and the existence of half pores. *

They also mimicked bacterial resistance conditions by increasing the CL-content in the membrane. *

By correlating the results of other research techniques such as FRET, SANS, NMR, CD or electrophysiology techniques with the results they achieved with high speed atomic force microscopy F. Zuttion et al. were able to confirm several, previously, hypothetical models, and detect several unknown molecular mechanisms. *

It is to be hoped that the possibilities offered by HS-AFM imaging will stimulate new models and insight on the structure-activity relationship of membrane-interacting molecules and also open up the possiblity to increase the throughput of screening of molecular candidates considerably. *

NanoWorld USC ( Ultra-Short AFM Cantilevers) of the USC-F1.2-k0.15 type, which are specially designed for the use in high speed atomic force microscopy, were used for the HS-AFM imaging described in the article cited below. These AFM probes have a typical resonance frequency of 1200 kHz and have a wear resistant AFM tip made from high density carbon.

Figure 4 Sub-MIC Dap on POPG at 37 °C. Tens of minutes from “High-speed atomic force microscopy highlights new molecular mechanism of daptomycin action” by Francesca Zuttion et al. NanoWorld Ultra-Short AFM Cantilevers USC-F1.2-k0.15 AFM probes for HS-AFM imaging were used.
Figure 4 Sub-MIC Dap on POPG at 37 °C. Tens of minutes from “High-speed atomic force microscopy highlights new molecular mechanism of daptomycin action” by Francesca Zuttion et al.
Intermediate stages a A new structure appeared: dimples, zones of thinner membrane thickness, whose diameter was in the range 7 ± 2 nm. Most dimples diffuse, but some remained static (colour scale: 3 nm). Movie details: frame rate 97 ms; zoom of a full image of 150 nm × 90 nm and 256 × 160 pixels. b The dimple diffusion consisted of swinging trajectories, implying membrane-mediated dimple-dimple attraction (colour scale: 3 nm). b, right, Energy profile of the interaction of the dimples obtained derived from 120 centre-to-centre distance measurements that contains as the oligomers two energy minima. Movie details: frame rate 83 ms; full image of 150 nm × 150 nm and 256 × 256 pixels. c In some membrane zones, clusters of dimples, reminiscent of cubic phases, developed (colour scale: 4 nm). Movie details: frame rate 74 ms; full image of 90 nm × 60 nm and 256 × 160 pixels. d The clusters of dimples were moderately dynamical in time, with moderate internal rearrangements (colour scale: 4 nm). Movie details: frame rate 74 ms; full image of 25 nm × 16 nm and 256 × 160 pixels. e The other deformation found was elongated-humps on top of the POPG membrane. e, left, An elongated-hump in the proximity of a cluster of dimples (colour scale: 4 nm). e, right, A close-up and a profile of an elongated-hump. Additional images of elongated-humps on Supplementary Fig. 1. Movie details: frame rate 479 ms; zoom of full image of 250 nm × 200 nm and 300 × 256 pixels. f It was observed that the dimples and the elongated-humps fused and gave yield to pores of toroidal structure where a protruding ring surrounds the pore (colour scale: 4 nm). Movie details: frame rate 74 ms; full image of 40 nm × 40 nm and 256 × 160 pixels.

*Francesca Zuttion, Adai Colom, Stefan Matile, Denes Farago, Frédérique Pompeo, Janos Kokavecz, Anne Galinier, James Sturgis and Ignacio Casuso
High-speed atomic force microscopy highlights new molecular mechanism of daptomycin action
Nature Communications volume 11, Article number: 6312 (2020)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19710-z

Please follow this external link to read the full article: https://rdcu.be/ciaW2

Open Access : The article “High-speed atomic force microscopy highlights new molecular mechanism of daptomycin action” by Francesca Zuttion, Adai Colom, Stefan Matile, Denes Farago, Frédérique Pompeo, Janos Kokavecz, Anne Galinier, James Sturgis and Ignacio Casuso is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.