Hiromi K. Kagawa

Near-infrared detection of potential evidence for microscopic organisms on Europa.

The possibility of an ocean within the icy shell of Jupiters moon Europa has established that world as a primary candidate in the search for extraterrestrial life within our Solar System. This paper evaluates the potential to detect evidence for microbial life by comparing laboratory studies of terrestrial microorganisms with measurements from the Galileo Near Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (NIMS). If the interior of Europa at one time harbored life, some evidence may remain in the surface materials. Examination of laboratory spectra of terrestrial extremophiles measured at cryogenic temperatures reveals distorted, asymmetric nearinfrared absorption features due to water of hydration. The band centers, widths, and shapes of these features closely match those observed in the Europa spectra. These features are strongest in reddish-brown, disrupted terrains such as linea and chaos regions. Narrow spectral features due to amide bonds in the microbe proteins provide a means of constraining the abundances of such materials using the NIMS data. The NIMS data of disrupted terrains exhibit distorted, asymmetric near-infrared absorption features consistent with the presence of water ice, sulfuric acid octahydrate, hydrated salts, and possibly as much as 0.2 mg cm(-3) of carbonaceous material that could be of biological origin. However, inherent noise in the observations and limitations of spectral sampling must be taken into account when discussing these findings.

Intracellular localization of a group II chaperonin indicates a membrane-related function

Chaperonins are protein complexes that are believed to function as part of a protein folding system in the cytoplasm of the cell. We observed, however, that the group II chaperonins known as rosettasomes in the hyperthermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus shibatae, are not cytoplasmic but membrane associated. This association was observed in cultures grown at 60°C and 76°C or heat-shocked at 85°C by using immunofluorescence microscopy and in thick sections of rapidly frozen cells grown at 76°C by using immunogold electron microscopy. We observed that increased abundance of rosettasomes after heat shock correlated with decreased membrane permeability at lethal temperature (92°C). This change in permeability was not seen in cells heat-shocked in the presence of the amino acid analogue azetidine 2-carboxylic acid, indicating functional protein synthesis influences permeability. Azetidine experiments also indicated that observed heat-induced changes in lipid composition in S. shibatae could not account for changes in membrane permeability. Rosettasomes purified from cultures grown at 60°C and 76°C or heat-shocked at 85°C bind to liposomes made from either the bipolar tetraether lipids of Sulfolobus or a variety of artificial lipid mixtures. The presence of rosettasomes did not significantly change the transition temperature of liposomes, as indicated by differential scanning calorimetry, or the proton permeability of liposomes, as indicated by pyranine fluorescence. We propose that these group II chaperonins function as a structural element in the natural membrane based on their intracellular location, the correlation between their functional abundance and membrane permeability, and their potential distribution on the membrane surface.

Two-dimensional crystals of reconstituted β-subunits of the chaperonin TF55 from Sulfolobus shibatae

We have obtained 2-dimensional crystals of the beta-subunits of the chaperonin TF55 from Sulfolobus shibatae reconstituted into oligomers in the absence of alpha-subunits. The subunits form rings with 9-fold rotational symmetry which arrange themselves in a trigonal lattice. From electron micrographs of negatively stained specimens we have calculated a projection map in plane group p312 showing the rings in top-view.

Chaperonin filaments: The archael cytoskeleton

Chaperonins are multi-subunit double-ring complexed composed of 60-kDa proteins that are believed to mediate protein folding in vivo. The chaperonins in the hyperthermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus shibatae are composed of the organism`s two most abundant proteins, which represent 4% of its total protein and have an intracellular concentration of {ge} 3.0 mg/ml. At concentrations of 1.0 mg/ml, purified chaperonin proteins aggregate to form ordered filaments. Filament formation, which requires Mg{sup ++} and nucleotide binding (not hydrolysis), occurs at physiological temperatures under conditions suggesting filaments may exist in vivo. If the estimated 4,600 chaperonins per cell, formed filaments in vivo, they could create a matrix of filaments that would span the diameter of an average S. shibatae cell 100 times. Direct observations of unfixed, minimally treated cells by intermediate voltage electron microscopy (300 kV) revealed an intracellular network of filaments that resembles chaperonin filaments produced in vitro. The hypothesis that the intracellular network contains chaperonins is supported by immunogold analyses. The authors propose that chaperonin activity may be regulated in vivo by filament formation and that chaperonin filaments may serve a cytoskeleton-like function in archaea and perhaps in other prokaryotes.