Manning Andrew J, Kuehn Meta J
Department of Biochemistry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
J Mol Microbiol Biotechnol. 2013;23(1-2):131-41. doi: 10.1159/000346548. Epub 2013 Apr 18.
The absence of subcellular organelles is a characteristic typically used to distinguish prokaryotic from eukaryotic cells. But recent discoveries do not support this dogma. Over the past 50 years, researchers have begun to appreciate and characterize Gram-negative bacterial outer membrane-derived vesicles and Gram-positive and archaeal membrane vesicles. These extracellular, membrane-bound organelles can perform a variety of functions, including binding and delivery of DNA, transport of virulence factors, protection of the cell from outer membrane targeting antimicrobials and ridding the cell of toxic envelope proteins. Here, we review the contributions of these extracellular organelles to prokaryotic physiology and compare these with the contributions of the bacterial interior membrane-bound organelles responsible for harvesting light energy and for generating magnetic crystals of heavy metals. Understanding the roles of these multifunctional extracellular vesicle organelles as microbial tools will help us to better realize the diverse interactions that occur in our polymicrobial world.
缺乏亚细胞器是通常用于区分原核细胞和真核细胞的一个特征。但最近的发现并不支持这一教条。在过去50年里，研究人员已开始认识并描述革兰氏阴性菌外膜衍生囊泡以及革兰氏阳性菌和古菌的膜囊泡。这些细胞外的、膜结合细胞器可执行多种功能，包括DNA的结合与传递、毒力因子的运输、保护细胞免受外膜靶向抗菌药物的影响以及清除细胞内有毒的包膜蛋白。在此，我们综述这些细胞外细胞器对原核生物生理学的贡献，并将其与负责捕获光能和生成重金属磁性晶体的细菌内膜结合细胞器的贡献进行比较。了解这些多功能细胞外囊泡细胞器作为微生物工具的作用，将有助于我们更好地认识在我们这个多微生物世界中发生的各种相互作用。
