Figure 2. OM biogenesis machinery.
Depicted are the components of three essential cellular machines required for outer membrane (OM) biogenesis. Chaperones, e.g. SurA and Skp deliver β-barrel outer membrane proteins to the β-barrel assembly machine (BAM) for assembly into the OM. While OM lipoproteins are delivered via the Lol machine. The LipoPolysaccharide Transport (LPT) Pathway transports LPS from the inner membrane (IM) to the cell surface via a hydrophobic conduit formed by the oligomerization of LptA. The molecular details of these machines are discussed in Section 2.