Identifying a Suppressor of the skp surA Double Null Mutant Synthetic Lethal Phenotype in Escherichia coli

Abstract

As a Gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli has an inner and outer membrane and an aqueous periplasm between the two membranes. Proper transport of outer membrane proteins from the cytoplasm, through the inner membrane and periplasm, and finally to the outer membrane is crucial to the survival of E. coli. In the periplasm, protein transport happens with the guide of chaperone proteins SurA, Skp, and DegP. Previous research has found that SurA is largely responsible for this transport while Skp and DegP work with each other on a separate pathway that is similar in function. surA degP double mutants have been used in the past to understand more about OM maintenance, but surA skp double mutants have been explored less because strains with both genes deleted exhibit a synthetic lethal phenotype. The present study presents an alternative method of suppression analysis used in order to find suppressors of the surA skp double null mutation and demonstrates a technique that can be used to better understand OM biogenesis.