Distortion of the bilayer and dynamics of the BAM complex in lipid nanodiscs

Abstract

With cryo-EM, single-molecule FRET and MD simulations, Iadanza et al. characterise the membrane protein insertase complex BAM in lipid bilayer nanodiscs. They show that the β-barrel domain of BamA is in a ‘lateral open’ conformation, and that BAM-containing lipid nanodisc deform around BAM’s lateral gate, giving structural evidence for lipid ‘disruptase’ activity of BAM.