PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Nolan W. Kennedy
AU  - Jasmine M. Hershewe
AU  - Taylor M. Nichols
AU  - Eric W. Roth
AU  - Charlene D. Wilke
AU  - Michael C. Jewett
AU  - Danielle Tullman-Ercek
TI  - Apparent size and morphology of bacterial microcompartments varies with technique
AID  - 10.1101/864074
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 864074
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/12/05/864074.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/12/05/864074.full
AB  - Bacterial microcompartments (MCPs) are protein-based organelles which encapsulate metabolic pathways. Metabolic engineers have recently sought to repurpose MCPs to encapsulate heterologous pathways to increase flux through pathways of interest. As MCP engineering becomes more common, standardized methods for analyzing changes to MCPs and interpreting results across studies will become increasingly important. In this study, we demonstrate that different imaging techniques yield variations in the apparent size of purified MCPs from Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium LT2, likely due to variations in sample preparation methods. We provide guidelines for preparing samples for MCP imaging and outline expected variations in apparent size and morphology between methods. With this report we aim to establish an aid for comparing results across studies.