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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Yann Cesbron, Dr Seamus Holden
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Bacterial cell division and peptidoglycan (PG) synthesis are orchestrated by the coordinated dynamic movement of essential protein complexes. Recent studies show that bidirectional treadmilling of FtsZ filaments/bundles is tightly coupled to and limiting for both septal PG synthesis and septum closure in some bacteria, but not in others. Here we report the dynamics of FtsZ movement leading to septal and equatorial ring formation in the ovoid-shaped pathogen, Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn). Conventional and single-molecule total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFm) showed that nascent rings of FtsZ and its anchoring and stabilizing proteins FtsA and EzrA move out from mature septal rings coincident with MapZ rings early in cell division. This mode of continuous nascent ring movement contrasts with a failsafe streaming mechanism of FtsZ/FtsA/EzrA observed in a ΔmapZ mutant and another Streptococcus species. This analysis also provides several parameters of FtsZ treadmilling in nascent and mature rings, including treadmilling velocity in wild-type cells and ftsZ(GTPase) mutants, lifetimes of FtsZ subunits in filaments and of entire FtsZ filaments/bundles, and the processivity length of treadmilling of FtsZ filament/bundles. In addition, we delineated the motion of the septal PBP2x transpeptidase and its FtsW glycosyl transferase binding partner relative to FtsZ treadmilling in Spn cells. Five lines of evidence support the conclusion that movement of the bPBP2x:FtsW complex in septa depends on PG synthesis and not on FtsZ treadmilling. Together, these results support a model in which FtsZ dynamics and associations organize and distribute septal PG synthesis, but do not control its rate in Spn.
Author(s): Perez AJ, Cesbron Y, Shaw SL, Villicana JB, Tsui HT, Boersma MJ, Ye ZA, Tovpeko Y, Dekker C, Holden S, Winkler ME
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Year: 2019
Volume: 116
Issue: 8
Pages: 3211-3220
Print publication date: 19/02/2019
Online publication date: 04/02/2019
Acceptance date: 03/01/2019
Date deposited: 06/02/2019
ISSN (print): 0027-8424
ISSN (electronic): 1091-6490
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
URL: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1816018116
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1816018116
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