The ultrastructure and ATPase nature of polar membrane in Campylobacter jejuni

Polar membrane in Campylobacter jejuni has been visualized on membrane vesicles. It was composed of doughnut-shaped particles 5-6 nm in diameter, with stalks, arranged in a hexagonal array. This structure was stabilized on the membrane by a high ionic strength buffer in the presence of 2-mercaptoethanol. Histochemical staining indicated localized ATPase activity at the poles of the cells. An ATPase with distinctive properties has been isolated and purified from this organism; it gives a specific activity of approximately 0.3 units/mg of protein. Electron microscopy showed doughnut-shaped particles 5-6 nm in diameter. Nondissociating and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the purified enzyme revealed, respectively, a single band with ATPase activity and a molecular weight of ca. 75,000 Da. The enzyme was cold labile and activity was abolished by trypsin. Dicyclohexylcarbodiimide inhibited the membrane-bound form of the enzyme, but did not inhibit the soluble form. Oligomycin had no inhibitory activity on either form of the enzyme. The enzyme specifically hydrolysed ATP, but other nucleotide substrates were not degraded. The enzyme was activated by Mg2+ and inhibited by Ca2+, whereas other ions had no effect on activity. Antibodies prepared to this enzyme bound to the polar regions of whole cells as shown by protein A - colloidal gold immunoelectron microscopy. The antibodies to this ATPase cross reacted (shown by Western blotting) with four proteins from a whole-cell extract of this organism, two proteins in Aquaspirillum serpens MW5, and three proteins from Escherichia coli K12. They did not cross-react with any proteins from Spirillum volutans, Methanococcus voltae, Vibrio cholerae, or rat liver mitochondria. Antibodies raised against the F1-ATPase of E. coli K12 cross reacted with six proteins in a whole-cell extract of this organism, and one protein species in each of the whole-cell extracts of V. cholera, A. serpens MW5, S. volutans, and rat liver mitochondria. These antibodies did not recognize any whole cell proteins from either C. jejuni or M. voltae. These results along with the ATPase activity localized by histochemical staining suggest that polar membrane is an assembly of ATPase molecules at the poles of the cell and that the ATPase isolated from C. jejuni is serologically and structurally unusual.