Slayden Richard A, Knudson Dennis L, Belisle John T
Mycobacteria Research Laboratories, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA.
Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA.
Microbiology (Reading). 2006 Jun;152(Pt 6):1789-1797. doi: 10.1099/mic.0.28762-0.
In Mycobacterium tuberculosis the mechanism of septum formation and regulation of cell division remains undefined. In other bacterial species FtsZ polymerization and septum formation are influenced through protein interactions in addition to transcriptional regulation, and the combination of these provides tight regulation of this process. However, homologues of proteins known to affect FtsZ assembly have not been identified and substantiated in M. tuberculosis. This suggests that M. tuberculosis may possess unique processes for regulation of septum formation. To begin to address this poorly understood aspect of M. tuberculosis physiology, FtsZ inhibitors were used to block cell division and the effects on bacterial morphology and the transcriptional response were examined. Inhibition of septum formation prevented cell division and led to bacterial filamentation. Microarray-based transcriptional profiling allowed the evaluation of multiple metabolic processes in response to inhibition of septum formation and when coupled with bioinformatics provided a means to identify regulatory elements and other gene products that probably influence septum formation.
在结核分枝杆菌中，隔膜形成和细胞分裂的调控机制尚不清楚。在其他细菌物种中，FtsZ聚合和隔膜形成除了受到转录调控外，还受到蛋白质相互作用的影响，这些因素共同作用对这一过程进行严格调控。然而，在结核分枝杆菌中尚未鉴定和证实已知影响FtsZ组装的蛋白质同源物。这表明结核分枝杆菌可能拥有独特的隔膜形成调控过程。为了开始解决结核分枝杆菌生理学中这一了解甚少的方面，使用FtsZ抑制剂来阻断细胞分裂，并检测其对细菌形态和转录反应的影响。隔膜形成的抑制阻止了细胞分裂并导致细菌丝化。基于微阵列的转录谱分析能够评估响应隔膜形成抑制的多个代谢过程，并且与生物信息学相结合提供了一种手段来鉴定可能影响隔膜形成的调控元件和其他基因产物。
