Molecular mass and size of cellulosome (multimodular extracellular complex)

Range mass >2MDa: size ~100nm
Organism Bacteria Clostridium thermocellum
Reference Stahl SW et al., Single-molecule dissection of the high-affinity cohesin-dockerin complex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Dec 11 109(50):20431-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1211929109 p.20431 left column 2nd paragraphPubMed ID23188794
Comments P.20431 left column 2nd paragraph: "Through the course of evolution, as plants developed dense cross-linked networks of structural cell wall components to provide them with strength and support, simultaneous coevolution by microorganisms produced a variety of intricate enzyme systems for harvesting the abundant lignocellulosic carbon sources found in nature. These included secreted free cellulases, individual surface-bound cellulases, and an exquisite class of multimodular protein assemblies, the cellulosomes (ref 1). Cellulosomes are nanomachines honed through nature to self-organize on bacterial and fungal cell surfaces, adhere to plant materials, and deconstruct plant cell wall lignocellulose. Anaerobic bacteria such as Clostridium thermocellum express the various cellulosome components, which are transported to the cell surface and assembled into a large (>2 MDa) extracellular macromolecular complex ∼100 nm in size."
Entered by Uri M
ID 114327