Our laboratory uses electron tomography, combined with several structural and cell biology techniques, to study cell surfaces of prokaryotes at the atomic level. Surface molecules mediate cellular interactions with the environment and play important roles in key processes including cell adhesion, biofilm formation and antibiotic tolerance in pathogenic bacteria.
Structural and cell biology across a range of spatial scales reveals principle of surface layer biogenesis.
Our research aims to push the boundaries of cellular structural biology, with technical developments aimed at identifying molecules on cell surfaces, and resolving their high-resolution details in prokaryotic cells. While structural biology of many cell surface molecules reveals fundamental information about bacteria and archaea, our work has clear biomedical relevance, for example surface molecules allow pathogenic bacteria such as P. aeruginosa to evade antibiotics with biofilm formation.
Phage liquid crystals protect bacteria from antibiotics (left). Governing principles of biofilm formation revealed by advanced cryo-ET imaging (right).
Selected Papers
- von Kügelgen, A., van Dorst, S., Yamashita, K., Sexton, D.L., Tocheva, E.I., Murshudov, G., Alva, V., Bharat, T.A.M. (2023)
Interdigitated immunoglobulin arrays form the hyperstable surface layer of the extremophilic bacterium.
Proc Nate Acad Sci U S A 120: e2215808120 - Böhning, J., Ghrayeb, M., Pedebos, C., Abbas, D.K., Khalid, S., Chai, L., Bharat, T.A.M. (2022)
Donor-strand exchange drives assembly of the TasA scaffold in Bacillus subtilis biofilms.
Nat Commun 13: 7082 - Melia, C., Bolla, J.R., Lanwermeyer, S.K., Mihaylov, D., Hoffmann, P.C., Huo, J., Wozny, M.R., Elfari, L.M., Böhning, J., Owens, R.J., Robinson, C.V., O’Toole, G.A., Bharat, T.A.M. (2021)
Architecture of cell-cell junctions in situ reveals a mechanism for bacterial biofilm inhibition.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 118(31): - von Kügelgen, A., Tang., H., Hardy, G.G., Kureisaite-Ciziene, D., Brun, Y.V., Stansfeld, P.J., Robinson, C.V., and Bharat, T.A.M. (2020)
In Situ Structure of an Intact Lipopolysaccharide-Bound Bacterial Surface Layer
Cell 180(2): 348-358 - Tarafder, A.K., et al., von Kügelgen, A., Mellul, A., Schulze, U., Aarts, D. and Bharat, T.A.M (2020)
Phage liquid crystalline droplets form occlusive sheaths that encapsulate and protect infectious rod-shaped bacteria
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, - Bharat, T.A.M., Ciziene, D.K., Hardy, G.G., Yu, E.W., Devant, J.M., Hagen, W.J., Brun, Y.V., Briggs, J.A., and Löwe, J (2017)
Structure of the hexagonal surface layer on Caulobacter crescentus cells
Nature Microbiology 2: 17059 - Bharat, T. A., Murshudov, G. N., Sachse, C., and Löwe, J. (2015)
Structures of actin-like ParM filaments show architecture of plasmid-segregating spindles.
Nature 523: 106-110 - Bharat, T. A., Davey, N. E., Ulbrich, P., Riches, J. D., de Marco, A., Rumlova, M., Sachse, C., Ruml, T., and Briggs, J. A. (2012)
Structure of the immature retroviral capsid at 8 Å resolution by cryo-electron microscopy.
Nature 487: 385-389
Group Members
- Jan Böhning
- Ido Caspy
- Zephyr Ford
- Buse Isbilir
- Suzanne Letham
- Hannah Ochner
- Olivia Smith
- Abul Tarafder
- Andriko von Kügelgen
- Zhexin (Eric) Wang