Aldea M, Hernández-Chico C, de la Campa A G, Kushner S R, Vicente M
Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens 30602.
J Bacteriol. 1988 Nov;170(11):5169-76. doi: 10.1128/jb.170.11.5169-5176.1988.
A newly found morphogene of Escherichia coli, bolA, mapping at min 10 of the genetic map, was cloned in a 7.2-kilobase BamHI fragment and identified by its ability to produce osmotically stable spherical cells when overexpressed. This gene codes for a polypeptide of 13 kilodaltons. Overexpression of bolA+ was achieved in low-copy-number vectors with operon fusions to the tet and lac promoters, indicating a clockwise direction of transcription. While no modification of any of the penicillin-binding proteins was observed, morphological effects due to overexpression of bolA+ were shown to be dependent on the presence of an active ftsZ gene product. Our results suggest the existence of a mechanism mediated by FtsZ for modifying the conformation of nascent murein in the early steps of septum formation.
大肠杆菌中一个新发现的形态发生基因bolA，位于遗传图谱的10分钟处，被克隆到一个7.2千碱基的BamHI片段中，并通过其在过表达时产生渗透压稳定的球形细胞的能力得以鉴定。该基因编码一个13千道尔顿的多肽。通过与tet和lac启动子的操纵子融合，在低拷贝数载体中实现了bolA+的过表达，表明转录方向为顺时针。虽然未观察到任何青霉素结合蛋白的修饰，但bolA+过表达引起的形态学效应显示依赖于活性ftsZ基因产物的存在。我们的结果表明存在一种由FtsZ介导的机制，用于在隔膜形成的早期步骤中修饰新生胞壁质的构象。
