Life Sciences Commons^™

Structural Analysis Of The Bama-B Complex In Acinetobacter Baumannii, Abigael Gichaba, Nicholas Noinaj, Robert E. Stephenson

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

There are 2 types of bacteria, gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. Gram-negative bacteria have both a plasma membrane and an outer membrane, while gram-positive only have a plasma membrane. The outer membranes of gram-negative bacteria have outer membrane proteins which are essential for the bacteria’s survival. Also located within the outer membrane is a multicomponent protein complex named the beta-barrel assembly machinery (BAM) complex. BAM is responsible for folding and inserting outer membrane proteins into the outer membrane. This protein complex serves an essential role but not much is understood about its function. In this study, two subunits of the BAM …