Vibrio harveyi, a Gram-negative bioluminescent marine bacterium of the family Vibrionaceae, causes Vibriosis, a highly virulent disease that has devastating effects on fish and prawn-farming industries worldwide. Through its ability to grow rapidly under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions, V. harveyi has a crucial role in the rapid turnover of chitin biomaterials in marine ecosystems. The pathway of chitin catabolism by V. harveyi involves chitin attachment and degradation, followed by chitooligosaccharide uptake through the bacterial outer and inner membranes and finally catabolism of the transport products, which are used as carbon and nitrogen sources and in cellular energy production. Energy production in V. harveyi depends upon the generation of chitin degradation products and their transport into the cells. Chitoporin from (known as VhChiP) is as a pore-forming channel that performs highly specific translocation of chitooligosaccharides. Here you can see a recent crystal structure of chitoporin in a multiple arrangement, showing its characteristic beta-barrel fold (PDB code: 7X5Q)

#molecularart ... #immolecular ... #chitoporin ... #membrane ... #vibrio ... #betabarrel .. #xray

Structure rendered with @proteinimaging and depicted with @corelphotopaint