Department of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA, 52242, USA.
Nat Commun. 2022 Sep 30;13(1):5751. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-33404-8.
FtsN plays an essential role in promoting the inward synthesis of septal peptidoglycan (sPG) by the FtsWI complex during bacterial cell division. How it achieves this role is unclear. Here we use single-molecule tracking to investigate FtsN's dynamics during sPG synthesis in E. coli. We show that septal FtsN molecules move processively at ~9 nm s, the same as FtsWI molecules engaged in sPG synthesis (termed sPG-track), but much slower than the ~30 nm s speed of inactive FtsWI molecules coupled to FtsZ's treadmilling dynamics (termed FtsZ-track). Importantly, processive movement of FtsN is exclusively coupled to sPG synthesis and is required to maintain active sPG synthesis by FtsWI. Our findings indicate that FtsN is part of the FtsWI sPG synthesis complex, and that while FtsN is often described as a "trigger" for the initiation for cell wall constriction, it must remain part of the processive FtsWI complex to maintain sPG synthesis activity.
FtsN 在促进细菌细胞分裂过程中 FtsWI 复合物向内合成隔肽聚糖(sPG)方面发挥着重要作用。其具体作用机制尚不清楚。在这里,我们使用单分子追踪技术研究了 FtsN 在大肠杆菌中合成 sPG 时的动力学。我们发现,分隔 FtsN 分子以9nm/s 的速度进行定向运动,与参与 sPG 合成的 FtsWI 分子(称为 sPG-track)速度相同,但远低于与 FtsZ 的 treadmilling 动力学偶联的非活性 FtsWI 分子(称为 FtsZ-track)的30nm/s 速度。重要的是,FtsN 的定向运动仅与 sPG 合成偶联,并通过 FtsWI 维持 sPG 合成的活性。我们的研究结果表明,FtsN 是 FtsWI sPG 合成复合物的一部分,尽管 FtsN 通常被描述为细胞壁收缩起始的“触发”因子,但它必须保持与 FtsWI 复合物的定向运动,以维持 sPG 合成活性。