lnstitut far Mikrobiologie

Gas vesicle formation in halophilic archaea is encoded by a DNA region (the vac region) containing 14 different genes: gwpACN0 and gwpD€FGH/JK&M. In Halobacterium salinarum PHHl (which expresses the p-vac region from plasmid pHHl), gas vesicles are spindle shaped, whereas predominantly cylindrical gas vesicles are synthesized by the chromosomal c-vac region of H. salinarum PHH4 and the single chromosomal mc-vac region of Haloferax mediterranei. Homologous complementation of g w p gene clusters derived from the chromosomal c-vac region led to cylindrical gas vesicles in transformants and proved that the activity of the c-gvpA promoter depended on a gene product from the c-gwpE-IW DNA region. Heterologous complementation experiments with transcription units of different vac regions demonstrated that the formation of chimeric gas vesicles was possible. Comparison of micrographs of wild-type and chimeric gas vesicles indicated that the shape was not exclusively determined by GvpA, the major structural protein of the gas vesicle wall. More likely, a dynamic equilibrium of several g w p gene products was responsible for determination of the shape. Transmission electron microscopy of frozen hydrated, wild-type gas vesicles showed moire patterns due to the superposition of the front and back parts of the ribbed gas vesicle envelope. Comparison of projections of model helices with the moire pattern seen on the cylindrical part of the gas vesicles provided evidence that the ribs formed a helix of low pitch and not a stack of hoops