Prokaryotic Cell Structure and Function

LECTURE 3:

Microbiology and Virology; 3 Credit hours

Atta-ur-Rahman School of Applied Biosciences (ASAB)National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST)

COMPONENTS EXTERNAL TO THE CELL WALL

• Capsules, Slime Layers, and S-Layers• Pili and Fimbriae• Flagella and Motility– Chemotaxis

• Exospore

Capsules, Slime Layers

• Some prokaryotes have a layer of material lying outside the cell wall.

• When the layer is well organized and not easily washed off, it is called a capsule

• It is called a slime layer when it is a zone of diffuse, unorganized material that is removed easily.

• Glycocalyx; the glycoprotein, polysaccharide

Capsule, Slime Layers

Bacteria connected to each other and to the intestinal wall, by their glycocalyxes, the extensive networks of fibers extending from the cells

Capsule

• Capsules are not required for growth and reproduction in laboratory cultures, they do confer several advantages when prokaryotes grow in their normal habitats.

• Resist phagocytosis by host phagocytes• Contain a great deal of water and can protect against

desiccation.• Exclude viruses and most hydrophobic toxic materials

such as detergents.• Aids in attachment to solid surfaces, facilitate motility

S layer• The surface structures on archaea and

bacteria are monomolecular crystalline arrays of proteinaceous subunits termed surface layers or S-layers

• Since S-layers are monomolecular assemblies of identical subunits, they exhibit pores identical in size and morphology.

• Has pattern like floor tiles• S-layers are often lost during

prolonged cultivation under laboratory conditions.

Surface Layer• Because S-layer lattices possess pores identical in size and morphology

in the 2- to 8-nm range, they work as precise molecular sieves, providing sharp cutoff levels for the bacterial cells

• A kind of periplasmic space is formed between the S-layer and the plasma membrane where secreted macromolecules involved in nutrient degradation, nutrient transport, and folding and export of proteins could be stored

• Hyper-thermostable protease• Adhesion sites for cell associated exoenzymes• A quite interesting type of protective function was reported for the S-

layer lattice of Synechococcus GL-24, a cyanobacterium capable of growing in lakes with exceptionally high calcium and sulfate ion concentrations. The hexagonally ordered S-layer lattice functions as a template for fine-grain mineralization and is continuously shed from the cell surface to prevent clogging of further cell envelope layers.

Surface Layer

The S-Layer. An electron micrograph of the S-layer of the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans

Pili and Fimbriae

Pili and Fimbriae

Fimbriae• Procaryotes have short, fine, hairlike

appendages that are thinner than flagella

• They are slender tubes composed of helically arranged protein subunits and are about 3 to 10 nm in diameter and up to several micrometers long.

• A cell may be covered with up to 1,000 fimbriae

• Attach bacteria to solid surfaces such as rocks in streams and host tissues

• Locomotion

Pili• Pili often are larger than

fimbriae (around 9 to 10 nm in diameter).

• bacteria have about 1-10 sex pili (s., pilus) per cell

• They are genetically determined by conjugative plasmids and are required for conjugation.

Pili and Fimbriae

The long flagella and the numerous shorter fimbriae are very evident in this electron micrograph of the bacterium Proteus vulgaris

Flagella and Motility

• Bacterial flagella are slender, rigid structures, about 20 nm diameter and up to 15 or 20 μm long.

• Threadlike locomotor appendages extending outward from the plasma membrane and cell wall.

• Bacterial species often differ distinctively in their patterns of flagella distribution and these patterns are useful in identifying bacteria.

Arrangements of Flagella

THE BACTERIAL ENDOSPORE

• A number of gram-positive bacteria can form a special resistant, dormant structure called an endospore.

• These structures are extraordinarily resistant to environmental stresses such as– Heat, ultraviolet radiation,– Gamma radiation, chemical disinfectants, – Desiccation.

• In fact, some endospores have remained viable for around 100,000 years

THE BACTERIAL ENDOSPORE• Endospore position in the

mother cell (sporangium) frequently differs among species, making it of considerable value in identification.

• Endospores may be centrally located, close to one end (subterminal), or definitely terminal

• Sometimes an endospore is so large that it swells the sporangium.

The Bacterial Endospore

Endospore Structure. Bacillus anthracis endospore

The Bacterial Endospore

• The spore often is surrounded by a thin, delicate covering called the exosporium

• A spore coat lies beneath the exosporium, is composed of several protein layers, and may be fairly thick.

• The coat also is thought to contain enzymes that are involved in germination

The Bacterial Endospore• The cortex, which may occupy as

much as half the spore volume, rests beneath the spore coat.

• It is made of a peptidoglycan that is less cross-linked than that in vegetative cells.

• The spore cell wall (or core wall) is inside the cortex and surrounds the protoplast or spore core.

• The core has normal cell structures such as ribosomes and a nucleoid, but is metabolically inactive.

• As much as 15% of the spore’s dry weight consists of dipicolinic acid complexed with calcium ions which is located in the core.

• Aid in resistance to wet• Heat, oxidizing agents, and sometimes dry heat• Calcium dipicolinate stabilizes the spore’s nucleic

acids• Specialized small, acid-soluble DNA binding proteins

(SASPs)

Endospore Germination

• The transformation of dormant spores into active vegetative cells seems almost as complex a process as sporogenesis.

• It occurs in three stages:– activation, – germination, and – outgrowth

• Activation is a process that prepares spores for germination and usually results from treatments like heating.

• It is followed by germination process is characterized by spore swelling, rupture or absorption of the spore coat, loss of resistance to heat and other stresses, release of spore components, and increase in metabolic activity.

• Outgrowth; cell prepare for division