Insane in the membrane; how to avoid crowding of the Escherichia coli inner membrane?

Escherichia coli is one of the – if not the – most well studied organism on earth, however it keeps coming up with surprises. Recently, we added to this by observing that E. coli controls the amount of proteins in the inner membrane. If the inner membrane is crowded with proteins, it becomes more permeable, allowing increased uptake of, e.g., aminoglycosides, and consequently loss of viability. Thus, E. coli possess the ability to avoid crowding of the inner membrane without compromising its function in uptake of metabolites, efflux of toxins, and its essential role in envelope integrity. We will investigate this ability from multiple different angels to cover everything from regulation to changes in fluidity. This exploration will add to our basic understanding of E. coli, influence several biological fields, and provide a blueprint for investigating this phenome in higher organism.