MECHANISM
Outstanding in its apparent simplicity
The autodisplay system was developed based on the secretion mechanism of the autotransporter family of proteins. Gram negative bacteria have evolved the autotransporter pathway to transport proteins to the cell surface or secrete proteins into the extracellular milieu. This system is outstanding in its apparent simplicity.
The autotransporter proteins are synthesized as multidomain proteins containing all structural requirements for the transport to the cell surface. They contain an N-terminal signal peptide typical for the Sec pathway, enabling export across the inner membrane. After truncation of the signal peptide in the periplasm, the C-terminal domain folds into the outer membrane as a porine-like structure, a so called β-barrel. The passenger domain can be efficiently translocated to the extracellular milieu by this structure. Recombinant passengers can be transported to the surface by simple insertion of the corresponding coding sequence into a distinct position of the precursor gene.
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