Vats Purva, Rothfield Lawrence
Department of Molecular, Microbial, and Structural Biology, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT 06030, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Nov 6;104(45):17795-800. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0708739104. Epub 2007 Oct 31.
The bacterial actin homolog MreB exists as a single-copy helical cytoskeletal structure that extends between the two poles of rod-shaped bacteria. In this study, we show that equipartition of the MreB cytoskeleton into daughter cells is accomplished by division and segregation of the helical MreB array into two equivalent structures located in opposite halves of the predivisional cell. This process ensures that each daughter cell inherits one copy of the MreB cytoskeleton. The process is triggered by the membrane association of the FtsZ cell division protein. The cytoskeletal division and segregation events occur before and independently of cytokinesis and involve specialized MreB structures that appear to be intermediates in this process.
细菌肌动蛋白同源物MreB以单拷贝螺旋细胞骨架结构的形式存在,该结构在杆状细菌的两极之间延伸。在本研究中,我们表明,MreB细胞骨架向子细胞的均分是通过将螺旋状MreB阵列分裂并分离成位于分裂前细胞相对两半中的两个等效结构来实现的。这一过程确保每个子细胞继承一份MreB细胞骨架。该过程由FtsZ细胞分裂蛋白与膜的结合触发。细胞骨架的分裂和分离事件在胞质分裂之前发生且与之独立,并且涉及在此过程中似乎是中间体的特殊MreB结构。