Advances in cryoEM and its impact on β-pore forming proteins

Deployed by both hosts and pathogens, beta-pore-forming proteins (beta-PFPs) rupture membranes and lyse target cells. Soluble protein monomers oligomerize on the lipid bilayer where they undergo dramatic structural rearrangements, resulting in a transmembrane beta-barrel pore. Advances in electron cryo-microscopy (cryoEM) sample preparation, image detection, and computational algorithms have led to a number of recent structures that reveal a molecular mechanism of pore formation in atomic detail.