Membrane Vesicle Release in Bacteria, Eukaryotes, and Archaea: a Conserved yet Underappreciated Aspect of Microbial Life
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 1 June 2012
- journal article
- review article
- Published by American Society for Microbiology in Infection and Immunity
- Vol. 80 (6), 1948-1957
- https://doi.org/10.1128/iai.06014-11
Abstract
Interaction of microbes with their environment depends on features of the dynamic microbial surface throughout cell growth and division. Surface modifications, whether used to acquire nutrients, defend against other microbes, or resist the pressures of a host immune system, facilitate adaptation to unique surroundings. The release of bioactive membrane vesicles (MVs) from the cell surface is conserved across microbial life, in bacteria, archaea, fungi, and parasites. MV production occurs not only in vitro but also in vivo during infection, underscoring the influence of these surface organelles in microbial physiology and pathogenesis through delivery of enzymes, toxins, communication signals, and antigens recognized by the innate and adaptive immune systems. Derived from a variety of organisms that span kingdoms of life and called by several names (membrane vesicles, outer membrane vesicles [OMVs], exosomes, shedding microvesicles, etc.), the conserved functions and mechanistic strategies of MV release are similar, including the use of ESCRT proteins and ESCRT protein homologues to facilitate these processes in archaea and eukaryotic microbes. Although forms of MV release by different organisms share similar visual, mechanistic, and functional features, there has been little comparison across microbial life. This underappreciated conservation of vesicle release, and the resulting functional impact throughout the tree of life, explored in this review, stresses the importance of vesicle-mediated processes throughout biology.Keywords
This publication has 93 references indexed in Scilit:
- Membrane vesicles, current state-of-the-art: emerging role of extracellular vesiclesCellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 2011
- Selective Sorting of Cargo Proteins into Bacterial Membrane VesiclesOnline Journal of Public Health Informatics, 2011
- Bacillus anthracis produces membrane-derived vesicles containing biologically active toxinsProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2010
- Gut inflammation provides a respiratory electron acceptor for SalmonellaNature, 2010
- Exosomes: Extracellular organelles important in intercellular communicationJournal of Proteomics, 2010
- Evolution of diverse cell division and vesicle formation systems in ArchaeaNature Reviews Microbiology, 2010
- Membrane budding and scission by the ESCRT machinery: it's all in the neckNature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, 2010
- Cell biology of the ESCRT machineryCurrent Opinion in Cell Biology, 2009
- Membrane vesicles traffic signals and facilitate group activities in a prokaryoteNature, 2005
- Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli vesicles target toxin delivery into mammalian cellsThe EMBO Journal, 2004