Gas vesicle

Gas vesicles are components of the gas vacuole in certain prokaryotic organisms.[1] Gas vesicles are composed entirely of protein; no lipids or carbohydrates have been detected.

Function

Gas vesicles occur primarily in aquatic organism as they are used to modulate the cell's buoyancy and modify the cell's position in the water column so it can be optimally located for photosynthesis or move to locations with more or less oxygen.[1] Organisms that could float to the air–liquid interface out competes other aerobes that cannot rise in a water column, through using up oxygen in the top layer.

In addition, gas vesicles can be used to maintain optimum salinity by positioning the organism in specific locations in a stratified body of water to prevent osmotic shock.[2] High concentrations of solute will cause water to be drawn out of the cell by osmosis, causing cell lysis. The ability to synthesize gas vesicles is one of many strategies that allow halophilic organisms to tolerate environments with high salt content.

Evolution

Gas vesicles are likely one of the most early mechanisms of motility among microscopic organisms due to the fact that it is the most widespread form of motility conserved within the genome of prokaryotes, some of which have evolved about 3 billion years ago.[3][4] Modes of active motility such as flagella movement require a mechanism that could convert chemical energy into mechanical energy, and thus is much more complex and would have evolved later. Functions of the gas vesicles are also largely conserved among species, although the mode of regulation might differ, suggesting the importance of gas vesicles as a form of motility. In certain organism such as enterobacterium Serratia sp. flagella-based motility and gas vesicle production are regulated oppositely by a single RNA binding protein, RsmA, suggesting alternate modes of environmental adaptation which would have developed into different taxons through regulation of the development between motility and flotation.[5]

Although there is evidence suggesting the early evolution of gas vesicles, plasmid transfer serves as an alternate explanation of the widespread and conserved nature of the organelle.[4] Cleavage of a plasmid in Halobacterium halobium resulted in the loss of the ability to biosynthesize gas vesicles, indicating the possibility of horizontal gene transfer, which could result in a transfer of the ability to produce gas vesicles among different strains of bacteria.[6]

Structure

Gas vesicles are generally lemon-shaped or cylindrical, hollow tubes of protein with conical caps on both ends. The vesicles vary most in their diameter. Larger vesicles can hold more air and use less protein making them the most economic in terms of resource use, however, the larger a vesicle is the structurally weaker it is under pressure and the less pressure required before the vesicle would collapse. Organisms have evolved to be the most efficient with protein use and use the largest maximum vesicle diameter that will withstand the pressure the organism could be exposed to. In order for natural selection to have affected gas vesicles, the vesicles' diameter must be controlled by genetics.

Although genes encoding gas vesicles are found in many species of haloarchaea, only a few species produce them. The first Haloarchaeal gas vesicle gene, gvpA was cloned from Halobacterium sp. NRC-1.[7] 14 genes are involved in forming gas vesicles in haloarchaea.[8]

The first gas vesicle gene, gvpA was identified in Calothrix.[9] There are at least two proteins that compose a cyanobacterium's gas vesicle: GvpA, and GvpC. GvpA forms ribs and much of the mass (up to 90%) of the main structure. GvpA is strongly hydrophobic and may be one of the most hydrophobic proteins known. GvpC is hydrophilic and helps to stabilize the structure by periodic inclusions into the GvpA ribs. GvpC is capable of being washed out of the vesicle and a consequential decreases in the vesicle's strength. The thickness of the vesicle's wall may range from 1.8–2.8 nm. The ribbed structure of the vesicle is evident on both inner and outer surfaces with a spacing of 4–5 nm between ribs. Vesicles may be 100–1400 nm long and 45–120 nm in diameter.

Within a species gas vesicle sizes are relatively uniform with a standard deviation of ±4%.

Growth

It appears that gas vesicles begin their existence as small biconical (two cones with the flat bases joined together) structures which enlarge to the specific diameter than grow and expand their length. It is unknown exactly what controls the diameter but it may be a molecule that interferes with GvpA or the shape of GvpA may change.

Regulation

Formation of gas vesicles are regulated by two Gvp proteins: GvpD, which represses the expression of GvpA and GvpC proteins, and GvpE, which induces expression.[10] Extracellular environmental factors also affect vesicle formation, either by regulating Gvp protein production or by directly disturbing the vesicle structure.[11][12]

Light intensity

Light intensity has been found to affect gas vesicles production and maintenance differently between different bacteria and archaea. For Anabaena flos-aquae, higher light intensities leads to vesicle collapse from an increase in turgor pressure and greater accumulation of photosynthetic products. In cyanobacteria, vesicle production decreases at high light intensity due to exposure of the bacterial surface to UV radiation, which can damage the bacterial genome.[12]

Carbohydrates

Accumulation of glucose, maltose, or sucrose in Haloferax mediterranei and Haloferax volcanii were found to inhibit the expression of GvpA proteins and, therefore, a decrease of gas vesicle production. However, this only occurred at the cell’s early exponential growth phase. Vesicle formation could also be induced in decreasing extracellular glucose concentrations.[13]

Oxygen

A lack of oxygen was found to negatively affect gas vesicle formation in halophilic archaea. Halobacterium salinarum produce little or no vesicles under anaerobic conditions due to reduced synthesis of mRNA transcripts encoding for Gvp proteins. H. mediterranei and H. volcanii do not produce any vesicles under anoxic conditions due to a decrease in synthesized transcripts encoding for GvpA and truncated transcripts expressing GvpD.[13]

pH

Increased extracellular pH levels have been found to increase vesicle formation in Microcytis species. Under increased pH, levels of gvpA and gvpC transcripts increase, allowing more exposure to ribosomes for expression and leading to upregulation of Gvp proteins. It may be attributed to greater transcription of these genes, decreased decay of the synthesized transcripts or the higher stability of the mRNA.[14]

Ultrasonic irradiation

Ultrasonic irradiation, at certain frequencies, was found to collapse gas vesicles in cyanobacteria Spirulina platensis, preventing them from blooming.[15]

Quorum Sensing

In enterobacterium; Serratia sp. strain ATCC39006, gas vesicle is produced only when there is sufficient concentration of a signalling molecule, N-acyl homoserine lactone.In this case, the Quorum sensing molecule, N-acyl homoserine lactone acts as a morphogen initiating organelle development.[16] This is advantageous to the organism as resources for gas vesicle production are utilized only when there is oxygen limitation caused by an increase in bacterial population.

Role in vaccine development

Gas vesicle gene gvpC from Halobacterium sp. is used as delivery system for vaccine studies.

Several characteristics of the protein encoded by the gas vesicle gene gvpC allow it to be used as carrier and adjuvant for antigens: it is stable, resistant to biological degradation, tolerates relatively high temperatures (up to 50 °C), and non-pathogenic to humans.[17] Several antigens from various human pathogens have been recombined into the gvpC gene to create subunit vaccines with long-lasting immunologic responses.[18]

Different genomic segments encoding for several Chlamydia trachomatis pathogen’s proteins, including MOMP, OmcB, and PompD, are joined to the gvpC gene of Halobacteria. In vitro assessments of cells show expression of the Chlamydia genes on cell surfaces through imagining techniques and show characteristic immunologic responses such as TLRs activities and pro-inflammatory cytokines production.[19] Gas vesicle gene can be exploited as a delivery vehicle to generate a potential vaccine for Chlamydia. Limitations of this method include the need to minimize the damage of the GvpC protein itself while including as much of the vaccine target gene into the gvpC gene segment.[19]

A similar experiment uses the same gas vesicle gene and Salmonella enterica pathogen’s secreted inosine phosphate effector protein SopB4 and SopB5 to generate a potential vaccine vector. Immunized mice secrete pro-inflammatory cytokines IFN-γ, IL-2, and IL-9. Antibody IgG is also detected. After an infection challenge, none or significantly less amount of bacteria were found in the harvested organs such as the spleen and the liver. Potential vaccines using gas vesicle as an antigen display can be given via the mucosal route as an alternative administration pathway, increasing its accessibility to more people and eliciting a wider range of immune responses within the body.[17]

The Hammer Experiment

References

  1. 1 2 Walsby, Anthony (March 1994). "Gas Vesicles" (PDF). Microbiological Reviews. 58: 94–144. PMC 372955. PMID 8177173. Retrieved Jan 29, 2016.
  2. ↑ Speth, DR; Lagkouvardos, I; Jetten, MSM; Dutilh, BE; Qian, PY; Wang, Y (July 2017). "Draft Genome of Scalindua rubra, Obtained from the Interface Above the Discovery Deep Brine in the Red Sea, Sheds Light on Potential Salt Adaptation Strategies in Anammox Bacteria". Microbial Ecology. 74 (1): 1–5. doi:10.1007/s00248-017-0929-7. PMC 5486813. PMID 28074246.
  3. ↑ Schwartz, R. M; Dayhoff, M. O (Jan 1978). "Origins of prokaryotes, eukaryotes, mitochondria, and chloroplasts". Science. 199: 395–403. doi:10.1126/science.202030. PMID 202030. Retrieved Nov 19, 2017.
  4. 1 2 Stanley, James (June 1980). "The gas vacuole: An early organelle of prokaryote motility?". Origins of Life. 10 (2): 111–116. Bibcode:1980OrLi...10..111S. doi:10.1007/BF00928662.
  5. ↑ Ramsay, JP; Williamson, NR; Spring, DR; Salmond, GP (Aug 2011). "A quorum-sensing molecule acts as a morphogen controlling gas vesicle organelle biogenesis and adaptive flotation in an enterobacterium". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 108 (36): 14932–14937. doi:10.1073/pnas.1109169108. PMC 3169117. PMID 21873216.
  6. ↑ Weidinger, Gottfried; Klotz, Günther; Goebel, Werner (July 1979). "A large plasmid from Halobacterium halobium carrying genetic information for gas vacuole formation". Plasmid. 2 (3): 377–389. doi:10.1016/0147-619x(79)90021-0.
  7. ↑ DasSarma, S.; Damerval, T.; Jones, J. G.; Marsac, N. Tandeau de (1987-07-01). "A plasmid-encoded gas vesicle protein gene in a halophilic archaebacterium". Molecular Microbiology. 1 (3): 365–370. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2958.1987.tb01943.x. ISSN 1365-2958. PMID 3448465.
  8. ↑ Pfeifer F (2015). "Haloarchaea and the formation of gas vesicles". Life (Basel, Switzerland). 5 (1): 385–402. doi:10.3390/life5010385. PMC 4390858. PMID 25648404.
  9. ↑ de Marsac, Nicole Tandeau; Mazel, Didier; Bryant, Donald A.; Houmard, Jean (1985-10-25). "Molecular cloning and nucleotide sequence of a developmentally regulated gene from the cyanobacterium Calothrix PCC 7601: a gas vesicle protein gene". Nucleic Acids Research. 13 (20): 7223–7236. doi:10.1093/nar/13.20.7223. ISSN 0305-1048.
  10. ↑ Krüger, K.; Pfeifer, F. (1996-07-01). "Transcript analysis of the c-vac region and differential synthesis of the two regulatory gas vesicle proteins GvpD and GvpE in Halobacterium salinarium PHH4". Journal of Bacteriology. 178 (14): 4012–4019. doi:10.1128/jb.178.14.4012-4019.1996. ISSN 0021-9193. PMC 178154. PMID 8763925.
  11. ↑ Pfeifer, Felicitas (2015-02-02). "Haloarchaea and the Formation of Gas Vesicles". Life. 5 (1): 385–402. doi:10.3390/life5010385. PMC 4390858. PMID 25648404.
  12. 1 2 Oliver, R. L.; Walsby, A. E. (1984-07-01). "Direct evidence for the role of light-mediated gas vesicle collapse in the buoyancy regulation of Anabaena flos-aquae (cyanobacteria)1". Limnology and Oceanography. 29 (4): 879–886. doi:10.4319/lo.1984.29.4.0879. ISSN 1939-5590.
  13. 1 2 Hechler, Torsten; Pfeifer, Felicitas (2009-01-01). "Anaerobiosis inhibits gas vesicle formation in halophilic Archaea". Molecular Microbiology. 71 (1): 132–145. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2958.2008.06517.x. ISSN 1365-2958.
  14. ↑ Gao, Hong; Zhu, Tao; Xu, Min; Wang, Shuai; Xu, Xudong; Kong, Renqiu (2016-09-01). "pH-dependent gas vesicle formation in Microcystis". FEBS Letters. 590 (18): 3195–3201. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.12370. ISSN 1873-3468.
  15. ↑ Hao, Dr Hongwei; Wu, Minsheng; Chen, Yifang; Tang, Jiaowen; Wu, Qingyu (2004-12-27). "Cyanobacterial Bloom Control by Ultrasonic Irradiation at 20 kHz and 1.7 MHz". Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part A. 39 (6): 1435–1446. doi:10.1081/ESE-120037844. ISSN 1093-4529.
  16. ↑ Ramsay, JP; Williamson, NR; Spring, DR; Salmond, GP (Aug 2011). "A quorum-sensing molecule acts as a morphogen controlling gas vesicle organelle biogenesis and adaptive flotation in an enterobacterium". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 108 (36): 14932–14937. doi:10.1073/pnas.1109169108. PMC 3169117. PMID 21873216.
  17. 1 2 DasSarma, P.; Negi, V. D.; Balakrishnan, A.; Kim, J. -M.; Karan, R.; Chakravortty, D.; DasSarma, S. (2015-01-01). "Haloarchaeal Gas Vesicle Nanoparticles Displaying Salmonella Antigens as a Novel Approach to Vaccine Development". Procedia in Vaccinology. Procedia of the 8th Vaccine & ISV Congress, Philadelphia, USA, 2015. 9 (Supplement C): 16–23. doi:10.1016/j.provac.2015.05.003.
  18. ↑ Stuart, E. S.; Morshed, F.; Sremac, M.; DasSarma, S. (2001-06-15). "Antigen presentation using novel particulate organelles from halophilic archaea". Journal of Biotechnology. 88 (2): 119–128. doi:10.1016/s0168-1656(01)00267-x. ISSN 0168-1656. PMID 11403846.
  19. 1 2 Childs, Tawanna S.; Webley, Wilmore C. (2012-09-07). "In vitro assessment of halobacterial gas vesicles as a Chlamydia vaccine display and delivery system". Vaccine. 30 (41): 5942–5948. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2012.07.038. ISSN 1873-2518. PMID 22846397.
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