scholarly journals Cytoskeletal Proteins ofActinobacteria

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Letek ◽  
María Fiuza ◽  
Almudena F. Villadangos ◽  
Luís M. Mateos ◽  
José A. Gil
Keyword(s):  
Cell Division ◽  
Cell Growth ◽  
Bacterial Cell ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Cytoskeletal Proteins ◽  
Bacterial Cells ◽  
Cytoskeletal Elements ◽  
Review Current

Although bacteria are considered the simplest life forms, we are now slowly unraveling their cellular complexity. Surprisingly, not only do bacterial cells have a cytoskeleton but also the building blocks are not very different from the cytoskeleton that our own cells use to grow and divide. Nonetheless, despite important advances in our understanding of the basic physiology of certain bacterial models, little is known aboutActinobacteria, an ancient group of Eubacteria. Here we review current knowledge on the cytoskeletal elements required for bacterial cell growth and cell division, focusing on actinobacterial genera such asMycobacterium, Corynebacterium, andStreptomyces. These include some of the deadliest pathogens on earth but also some of the most prolific producers of antibiotics and antitumorals.

scholarly journals Synthetic protocell biology: from reproduction to computation

2007 ◽  
Vol 362 (1486) ◽  
pp. 1727-1739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricard V Solé ◽  
Andreea Munteanu ◽  
Carlos Rodriguez-Caso ◽  
Javier Macía
Keyword(s):  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Biochemical Networks ◽  
Cellular Structures ◽  
Biological Complexity ◽  
Artificial Cell ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
Cooperative Dynamics ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Review Current

Cells are the building blocks of biological complexity. They are complex systems sustained by the coordinated cooperative dynamics of several biochemical networks. Their replication, adaptation and computational features emerge as a consequence of appropriate molecular feedbacks that somehow define what life is. As the last decades have brought the transition from the description-driven biology to the synthesis-driven biology, one great challenge shared by both the fields of bioengineering and the origin of life is to find the appropriate conditions under which living cellular structures can effectively emerge and persist. Here, we review current knowledge (both theoretical and experimental) on possible scenarios of artificial cell design and their future challenges.

scholarly journals When fate follows age: unequal centrosomes in asymmetric cell division

2014 ◽  
Vol 369 (1650) ◽  
pp. 20130466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Reina ◽  
Cayetano Gonzalez
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cells ◽  
Cell Division ◽  
Strong Correlation ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Asymmetric Cell Division ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Functional Implications ◽  
Different Cell Types ◽  
Review Current

A strong correlation between centrosome age and fate has been reported in some stem cells and progenitors that divide asymmetrically. In some cases, such stereotyped centrosome behaviour is essential to endow stemness to only one of the two daughters, whereas in other cases causality is still uncertain. Here, we present the different cell types in which correlated centrosome age and fate has been documented, review current knowledge on the underlying molecular mechanisms and discuss possible functional implications of this process.

scholarly journals Structural Determinants and Their Role in Cyanobacterial Morphogenesis

Life ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 355
Author(s):  
Benjamin L. Springstein ◽  
Dennis J. Nürnberg ◽  
Gregor L. Weiss ◽  
Martin Pilhofer ◽  
Karina Stucken
Keyword(s):  
Cell Division ◽  
Cell Growth ◽  
Morphological Changes ◽  
Coiled Coil ◽  
Cytoskeletal Proteins ◽  
Specific Cell ◽  
Growth Strategies ◽  
Structural Determinants ◽  
Gram Negative ◽  
Associated Proteins

Cells have to erect and sustain an organized and dynamically adaptable structure for an efficient mode of operation that allows drastic morphological changes during cell growth and cell division. These manifold tasks are complied by the so-called cytoskeleton and its associated proteins. In bacteria, FtsZ and MreB, the bacterial homologs to tubulin and actin, respectively, as well as coiled-coil-rich proteins of intermediate filament (IF)-like function to fulfil these tasks. Despite generally being characterized as Gram-negative, cyanobacteria have a remarkably thick peptidoglycan layer and possess Gram-positive-specific cell division proteins such as SepF and DivIVA-like proteins, besides Gram-negative and cyanobacterial-specific cell division proteins like MinE, SepI, ZipN (Ftn2) and ZipS (Ftn6). The diversity of cellular morphologies and cell growth strategies in cyanobacteria could therefore be the result of additional unidentified structural determinants such as cytoskeletal proteins. In this article, we review the current advances in the understanding of the cyanobacterial cell shape, cell division and cell growth.

scholarly journals Facile Synthesis and Metabolic Incorporation of m-DAP Bioisosteres Into Cell Walls of Live Bacteria

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis J. Apostolos ◽  
Julia M. Nelson ◽  
Marcos M. Pires
Keyword(s):  
Cell Wall ◽  
Bacterial Cell ◽  
Cell Walls ◽  
Drug Targets ◽  
Solid Phase ◽  
Bacterial Species ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Diaminopimelic Acid ◽  
Bacterial Cells

AbstractBacterial cell walls contain peptidoglycan (PG), a scaffold that provides proper rigidity to resist lysis from internal osmotic pressure and a barrier to protect cells against external stressors. It consists of repeating sugar units with a linkage to a stem peptide that becomes highly crosslinked by cell wall transpeptidases (TP). Because it is an essential component of the bacterial cell, the PG biosynthetic machinery is often the target of antibiotics. For this reason, cellular probes that advance our understanding of PG biosynthesis and its maintenance can be powerful tools to reveal novel drug targets. While synthetic PG fragments containing L-Lysine in the 3rd position on the stem peptide are easier to access, those with meso-diaminopimelic acid (m-DAP) pose a severe synthetic challenge. Herein, we describe a solid phase synthetic scheme based on the widely available Fmoc-protected L-Cysteine building block to assemble meso-cystine (m-CYT), which mimics key structural features of m-DAP. To demonstrate proper mimicry of m-DAP, cell wall probes were synthesized with m-CYT in place of m-DAP and evaluated for their metabolic processing in live bacterial cells. We found that m-CYT-based cell wall probes were properly processed by TPs in various bacterial species that endogenously contain m-DAP in their PG. We anticipate that this strategy, which is based on the use of inexpensive and commercially available building blocks, can be widely adopted to provide greater accessibility of PG mimics for m-DAP containing organisms.

scholarly journals Bacterial cell proliferation: from molecules to cells

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alix Meunier ◽  
François Cornet ◽  
Manuel Campos
Keyword(s):  
Cell Cycle ◽  
Cell Proliferation ◽  
Cell Division ◽  
Dna Replication ◽  
Cell Growth ◽  
Bacterial Cell ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Cell Physiology ◽  
Precise Knowledge

ABSTRACT Bacterial cell proliferation is highly efficient, both because bacteria grow fast and multiply with a low failure rate. This efficiency is underpinned by the robustness of the cell cycle and its synchronization with cell growth and cytokinesis. Recent advances in bacterial cell biology brought about by single-cell physiology in microfluidic chambers suggest a series of simple phenomenological models at the cellular scale, coupling cell size and growth with the cell cycle. We contrast the apparent simplicity of these mechanisms based on the addition of a constant size between cell cycle events (e.g. two consecutive initiation of DNA replication or cell division) with the complexity of the underlying regulatory networks. Beyond the paradigm of cell cycle checkpoints, the coordination between the DNA and division cycles and cell growth is largely mediated by a wealth of other mechanisms. We propose our perspective on these mechanisms, through the prism of the known crosstalk between DNA replication and segregation, cell division and cell growth or size. We argue that the precise knowledge of these molecular mechanisms is critical to integrate the diverse layers of controls at different time and space scales into synthetic and verifiable models.

scholarly journals Not So Slim Anymore—Evidence for the Role of SUMO in the Regulation of Lipid Metabolism

Biomolecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1154
Author(s):  
Amir Sapir
Keyword(s):  
Lipid Metabolism ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Regulatory Element ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver ◽  
Element Binding Protein ◽  
Sterol Regulatory Element ◽  
Nonpolar Organic

One of the basic building blocks of all life forms are lipids—biomolecules that dissolve in nonpolar organic solvents but not in water. Lipids have numerous structural, metabolic, and regulative functions in health and disease; thus, complex networks of enzymes coordinate the different compositions and functions of lipids with the physiology of the organism. One type of control on the activity of those enzymes is the conjugation of the Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier (SUMO) that in recent years has been identified as a critical regulator of many biological processes. In this review, I summarize the current knowledge about the role of SUMO in the regulation of lipid metabolism. In particular, I discuss (i) the role of SUMO in lipid metabolism of fungi and invertebrates; (ii) the function of SUMO as a regulator of lipid metabolism in mammals with emphasis on the two most well-characterized cases of SUMO regulation of lipid homeostasis. These include the effect of SUMO on the activity of two groups of master regulators of lipid metabolism—the Sterol Regulatory Element Binding Protein (SERBP) proteins and the family of nuclear receptors—and (iii) the role of SUMO as a regulator of lipid metabolism in arteriosclerosis, nonalcoholic fatty liver, cholestasis, and other lipid-related human diseases.

scholarly journals Pathologies of axonal transport in neurodegenerative diseases

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin-An Liu ◽  
Valerio Rizzo ◽  
Sathyanarayanan Puthanveettil
Keyword(s):  
Neurodegenerative Diseases ◽  
Active Transport ◽  
Molecular Motors ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Cytoskeletal Proteins ◽  
Gene Products ◽  
Neuronal Connections ◽  
Critical Components ◽  
Myosin Motors ◽  
Review Current

AbstractGene products such as organelles, proteins and RNAs are actively transported to synaptic terminals for the remodeling of pre-existing neuronal connections and formation of new ones. Proteins described as molecular motors mediate this transport and utilize specialized cytoskeletal proteins that function as molecular tracks for the motor based transport of cargos. Molecular motors such as kinesins and dynein’s move along microtubule tracks formed by tubulins whereas myosin motors utilize tracks formed by actin. Deficits in active transport of gene products have been implicated in a number of neurological disorders. We describe such disorders collectively as “transportopathies”. Here we review current knowledge of critical components of active transport and their relevance to neurodegenerative diseases.

scholarly journals 50S ribosomal subunit synthesis and translation are equivalent targets for erythromycin inhibition in Staphylococcus aureus.

1996 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 1301-1303 ◽  
Author(s):  
W S Champney ◽  
R Burdine
Keyword(s):  
Staphylococcus Aureus ◽  
Cell Growth ◽  
Growth Rates ◽  
Bacterial Cell ◽  
Direct Relationship ◽  
Ribosomal Subunit ◽  
Inhibitory Effect ◽  
Macrolide Antibiotics ◽  
Bacterial Cells ◽  
Subunit Assembly

Macrolide antibiotics like erythromycin can prevent the formation of the 50S ribosomal subunit in growing bacterial cells, in addition to their inhibitory effect on translation. The significance of this novel finding has been further investigated. The 50% inhibitory doses of erythromycin for the inhibition of translation and 50S subunit assembly in Staphylococcus aureus cells were measured and were found to be identical. Together they account quantitatively for the observed effects of erythromycin on cell growth rates. There is also a direct relationship between the loss of rRNA from the 50S subunit and its accumulation as oligoribonucleotides in cells. The importance of this second site for erythromycin inhibition of bacterial cell growth is discussed.

scholarly journals Tiny cells meet big questions: a closer look at bacterial cell biology

2013 ◽  
Vol 24 (8) ◽  
pp. 1099-1102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin D. Goley
Keyword(s):  
Bacterial Cell ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Eukaryotic Cell ◽  
Cytoskeletal Proteins ◽  
Bacterial Cells ◽  
Cell Biologist ◽  
Biological Phenomena ◽  
Membrane Bound ◽  
The University

While studying actin assembly as a graduate student with Matt Welch at the University of California at Berkeley, my interest was piqued by reports of surprising observations in bacteria: the identification of numerous cytoskeletal proteins, actin homologues fulfilling spindle-like functions, and even the presence of membrane-bound organelles. Curiosity about these phenomena drew me to Lucy Shapiro's lab at Stanford University for my postdoctoral research. In the Shapiro lab, and now in my lab at Johns Hopkins, I have focused on investigating the mechanisms of bacterial cytokinesis. Spending time as both a eukaryotic cell biologist and a bacterial cell biologist has convinced me that bacterial cells present the same questions as eukaryotic cells: How are chromosomes organized and accurately segregated? How is force generated for cytokinesis? How is polarity established? How are signals transduced within and between cells? These problems are conceptually similar between eukaryotes and bacteria, although their solutions can differ significantly in specifics. In this Perspective, I provide a broad view of cell biological phenomena in bacteria, the technical challenges facing those of us who peer into bacterial cells, and areas of common ground as research in eukaryotic and bacterial cell biology moves forward.

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