scholarly journals A polymerisation-associated conformational switch in FtsZ that enables treadmilling

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Wagstaff ◽  
Matthew Tsim ◽  
María A. Oliva ◽  
Alba García-Sanchez ◽  
Danguole Kureisaite-Ciziene ◽  
...  

AbstractBacterial cell division in many organisms involves a constricting cytokinetic ring that is orchestrated by the tubulin-like protein FtsZ. FtsZ forms dynamic filaments close to the membrane at the site of division that have recently been shown to treadmill around the division ring, guiding septal wall synthesis.Here, using X-ray crystallography ofStaphylococcus aureusSaFtsZ we reveal how an FtsZ can adopt two functionally distinct conformations, open and closed. The open form is found in SaFtsZ filaments formed in crystals and also in soluble filaments ofE. coliFtsZ as deduced by cryoEM. The closed form is found within several crystal forms of two non-polymerising SaFtsZ mutants and corresponds to many previous FtsZ structures from other organisms.We argue that FtsZ undergoes a polymerisation-associated conformational switch. We show that such a switch provides explanations for both how treadmilling may occur within a single-stranded filament, and why filament assembly is cooperative.

2008 ◽  
Vol 190 (18) ◽  
pp. 6048-6059 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carine Robichon ◽  
Glenn F. King ◽  
Nathan W. Goehring ◽  
Jon Beckwith

ABSTRACT Bacterial cell division is mediated by a set of proteins that assemble to form a large multiprotein complex called the divisome. Recent studies in Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli indicate that cell division proteins are involved in multiple cooperative binding interactions, thus presenting a technical challenge to the analysis of these interactions. We report here the use of an E. coli artificial septal targeting system for examining the interactions between the B. subtilis cell division proteins DivIB, FtsL, DivIC, and PBP 2B. This technique involves the fusion of one of the proteins (the “bait”) to ZapA, an E. coli protein targeted to mid-cell, and the fusion of a second potentially interacting partner (the “prey”) to green fluorescent protein (GFP). A positive interaction between two test proteins in E. coli leads to septal localization of the GFP fusion construct, which can be detected by fluorescence microscopy. Using this system, we present evidence for two sets of strong protein-protein interactions between B. subtilis divisomal proteins in E. coli, namely, DivIC with FtsL and DivIB with PBP 2B, that are independent of other B. subtilis cell division proteins and that do not disturb the cytokinesis process in the host cell. Our studies based on the coexpression of three or four of these B. subtilis cell division proteins suggest that interactions among these four proteins are not strong enough to allow the formation of a stable four-protein complex in E. coli in contrast to previous suggestions. Finally, our results demonstrate that E. coli artificial septal targeting is an efficient and alternative approach for detecting and characterizing stable protein-protein interactions within multiprotein complexes from other microorganisms. A salient feature of our approach is that it probably only detects the strongest interactions, thus giving an indication of whether some interactions suggested by other techniques may either be considerably weaker or due to false positives.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (10) ◽  
pp. 512-514
Author(s):  
Rui-bo Xu ◽  
Xiao-tian Yang ◽  
Hai-nan Li ◽  
Peng-cheng Zhao ◽  
Jiao-jiao Li ◽  
...  

Two new bis-Schiff bases containing a piperazine ring, N,N‘-bis(4-chlorobenzylidene)- and N,N‘-bis(4-cyanobenzylidene)-1,4-bis(3-aminopropyl)piperazine, were prepared by the reaction of N,N‘-bis(3-aminopropyl)piperazine with 4-chloro- and 4-cyanobenzaldehyde, respectively. The dichloro compound was fully identified by X-ray crystallography and it exhibited good antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis.


2007 ◽  
Vol 90 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 59-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Medhatm Khattar ◽  
Issmat I. Kassem ◽  
Ziad W. El-Hajj

In 1993, William Donachie wrote “The success of molecular genetics in the study of bacterial cell division has been so great that we find ourselves, armed with much greater knowledge of detail, confronted once again with the same naive questions that we set to answer in the first place”1. Indeed, attempts to answer the apparently simple question of how a bacterial cell divides have led to a wealth of new knowledge, in particular over the past decade and a half. And while some questions have been answered to a great extent since the early reports of isolation of division mutants of Escherichia coli2,3, some key pieces of the puzzle remain elusive. In addition to it being a fundamental process in bacteria that merits investigation in its own right, studying the process of cell division offers an abundance of new targets for the development of new antibacterial compounds that act directly against key division proteins and other components of the cytoskeleton, which are encoded by the morphogenes of E. coli4. This review aims to present the reader with a snapshot summary of the key players in E. coli morphogenesis with emphasis on cell division and the rod to sphere transition.


Author(s):  
Maria A. Schumacher ◽  
Tomoo Ohashi ◽  
Lauren Corbin ◽  
Harold P. Erickson

Bacterial cytokinesis is mediated by the Z-ring, which is formed by the prokaryotic tubulin homolog FtsZ. Recent data indicate that the Z-ring is composed of small patches of FtsZ protofilaments that travel around the bacterial cell by treadmilling. Treadmilling involves a switch from a relaxed (R) state, favored for monomers, to a tense (T) conformation, which is favored upon association into filaments. The R conformation has been observed in numerous monomeric FtsZ crystal structures and the T conformation in Staphylococcus aureus FtsZ crystallized as assembled filaments. However, while Escherichia coli has served as a main model system for the study of the Z-ring and the associated divisome, a structure has not yet been reported for E. coli FtsZ. To address this gap, structures were determined of the E. coli FtsZ mutant FtsZ(L178E) with GDP and GTP bound to 1.35 and 1.40 Å resolution, respectively. The E. coli FtsZ(L178E) structures both crystallized as straight filaments with subunits in the R conformation. These high-resolution structures can be employed to facilitate experimental cell-division studies and their interpretation in E. coli.


Antibiotics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 213 ◽  
Author(s):  
V.A. Karetsi ◽  
C.N. Banti ◽  
N. Kourkoumelis ◽  
C. Papachristodoulou ◽  
C.D. Stalikas ◽  
...  

The [Zn3(CitH)2] (1) (CitH4= citric acid), was dispersed in sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) to form the micelle of SLS@[Zn3(CitH)2] (2). This material 2 was incorporated in hydrogel made by hydroxyethyl-methacrylate (HEMA), an ingredient of contact lenses, toward the formation of pHEMA@(SLS@[Zn3(CitH)2]) (3). Samples of 1 and 2 were characterized by UV-Vis, 1H-NMR, FT-IR, FT-Raman, single crystal X-ray crystallography, X-ray fluorescence analysis, atomic absorption and TG/DTA/DSC. The antibacterial activity of 1–3 as well as of SLS against Gram-positive (Staphylococcus epidermidis (St. epidermidis) and Staphylococcus aureus (St. aureus)) and Gram-negative (Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PAO1), and Escherichia coli (E. coli)) bacteria was evaluated by the means of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) and inhibitory zone (IZ). 2 showed 10 to 20-fold higher activity than 1 against the bacteria tested. Moreover the 3 decreases the abundance of Gram-positive microbes up to 30% (St. aureus) and up to 20% (PAO1) the Gram-negative ones. The noteworthy antimicrobial activity of the obtained composite 3 suggests an effective antimicrobial additive for infection-free contact lenses.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (40) ◽  
pp. eabb8219
Author(s):  
N. Zeytuni ◽  
S. W. Dickey ◽  
J. Hu ◽  
H. T. Chou ◽  
L. J. Worrall ◽  
...  

Staphylococcus aureus is a major human pathogen that has acquired alarming broad-spectrum antibiotic resistance. One group of secreted toxins with key roles during infection is the phenol-soluble modulins (PSMs). PSMs are amphipathic, membrane-destructive cytolytic peptides that are exported to the host-cell environment by a designated adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP)–binding cassette (ABC) transporter, the PSM transporter (PmtABCD). Here, we demonstrate that the minimal Pmt unit necessary for PSM export is PmtCD and provide its first atomic characterization by single-particle cryo-EM and x-ray crystallography. We have captured the transporter in the ATP-bound state at near atomic resolution, revealing a type II ABC exporter fold, with an additional cytosolic domain. Comparison to a lower-resolution nucleotide-free map displaying an “open” conformation and putative hydrophobic inner chamber of a size able to accommodate the binding of two PSM peptides provides mechanistic insight and sets the foundation for therapeutic design.


1999 ◽  
Vol 55 (11) ◽  
pp. 1885-1892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacek Nowakowski ◽  
Peter J. Shim ◽  
Gerald F. Joyce ◽  
C. David Stout

One of the most difficult steps in the X-ray crystallography of nucleic acids is obtaining crystals that diffract to high resolution. The choice of the nucleotide sequence has proven to be more important in producing high-quality crystals than the composition of the crystallization solution. This manuscript describes a systematic procedure for identifying the optimal sizes of a multi-stranded nucleic acid complex which provide high-quality crystals. This approach was used to crystallize the in vitro evolved 10-23 DNA enzyme complexed with its RNA substrate. In less than two months, 81 different enzyme–substrate complexes were generated by combinatorial mixing and annealing of complementary oligonucleotides which differed in length, resulting in duplexes of varying length, with or without nucleotide overhangs. Each of these complexes was screened against a standard set of 48 crystallization conditions and evaluated for crystal formation. The screen resulted in over 40 crystal forms, the best of which diffracted to 2.8 Å resolution when exposed to a synchrotron X-ray source.


2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (16) ◽  
pp. 10899-10909 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert W. Wheatley ◽  
Douglas H. Juers ◽  
Bogdan B. Lev ◽  
Reuben E. Huber ◽  
Sergei Yu. Noskov

X-ray crystallography and computational simulations reveal novel mechanisms important for Na+/K+selectivity in enzymes.


2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 2430-2439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise J. Gourlay ◽  
Silvia Sommaruga ◽  
Marco Nardini ◽  
Paola Sperandeo ◽  
Gianni Dehò ◽  
...  

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