Mycobacterial Membrane Domain, or a Primordial Organelle?

Mycobacteria, like many other prokaryotic organisms, do not appear to have membrane-bound organelles to organize the subcellular space. Nevertheless, mycobacteria and related bacteria grow their cell envelope in a spatially controlled manner, restricting cell elongation to the polar regions of the rod-shaped cell. This spatial organization demands that synthesized cell envelope components must be supplied to the polar ends of the cell. Because many cell envelope components are either lipids or built as lipid-anchored precursors, the plasma membrane is the major site of the biosynthesis. Thus, there are logistical questions of where in the plasma membrane these lipids and lipid precursors are made and how they are subsequently delivered to the growing poles of the cell. Our discovery of an intracellular membrane domain (IMD) fills in this gap. Currently available data suggest that the IMD is a membrane domain within the plasma membrane of mycobacteria, which mediates key biosynthetic reactions for cell envelope and other lipid biosynthetic reactions. Consistent with its role in polar growth, the IMD is enriched in the polar regions of actively growing cells and becomes less polarized when the cells experience non-growing conditions. We discuss how such membrane compartmentalization may be generated and maintained in a mycobacterial cell and why it has not evolved into a organelle. In a broader perspective, we suggest that segregation of biosynthetic pathways into different domains of a planar membrane could be more widespread than we currently think.