Trigger factor is a bona fide secretory pathway chaperone that interacts with SecB and the translocase.

Bacterial secretory preproteins are translocated across the inner membrane post-translationally by the SecYEG-SecA translocase. Mature domain features and signal peptides maintain preproteins in kinetically trapped, largely soluble, folding intermediates. Some aggregation-prone preproteins require chaperones, like trigger factor (TF) and SecB, for solubility and/or targeting.

Structural Basis of the Subcellular Topology Landscape of .

Cellular proteomes are distributed in multiple compartments: on DNA, ribosomes, on and inside membranes, or they become secreted. Structural properties that allow polypeptides to occupy subcellular niches, particularly to after crossing membranes, remain unclear. We compared intrinsic and extrinsic features in cytoplasmic and secreted polypeptides of the K-12 proteome.

Inner Membrane Translocases and Insertases.

The inner membrane of Gram-negative bacteria is a ~6 nm thick phospholipid bilayer. It forms a semi-permeable barrier between the cytoplasm and periplasm allowing only regulated export and import of ions, sugar polymers, DNA and proteins. Inner membrane proteins, embedded via hydrophobic transmembrane α-helices, play an essential role in this regulated trafficking: they mediate insertion into the membrane (insertases) or complete crossing of the membrane (translocases) or both.

Long-Lived Folding Intermediates Predominate the Targeting-Competent Secretome.

Secretory preproteins carry signal peptides fused amino-terminally to mature domains. They are post-translationally targeted to cross the plasma membrane in non-folded states with the help of translocases, and fold only at their final destinations. The mechanism of this process of postponed folding is unknown, but is generally attributed to signal peptides and chaperones.

Protein export through the bacterial Sec pathway.

The general secretory (Sec) pathway comprises an essential, ubiquitous and universal export machinery for most proteins that integrate into, or translocate through, the plasma membrane. Sec exportome polypeptides are synthesized as pre-proteins that have cleavable signal peptides fused to the exported mature domains. Recent advances have re-evaluated the interaction networks of pre-proteins with chaperones that are involved in pre-protein targeting from the ribosome to the SecYEG channel and have identified conformational signals as checkpoints for high-fidelity targeting and translocation.

Protein folding in the cell envelope of Escherichia coli.

While the entire proteome is synthesized on cytoplasmic ribosomes, almost half associates with, localizes in or crosses the bacterial cell envelope. In Escherichia coli a variety of mechanisms are important for taking these polypeptides into or across the plasma membrane, maintaining them in soluble form, trafficking them to their correct cell envelope locations and then folding them into the right structures. The fidelity of these processes must be maintained under various environmental conditions including during stress; if this fails, proteases are called in to degrade mislocalized or aggregated proteins.