Department of Microbial Genetics, Institute of Molecular Biology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia.
Laboratory of Microbial Genetics and Gene Expression, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic.
J Biol Chem. 2024 Jun;300(6):107339. doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2024.107339. Epub 2024 May 4.
During sporulation, Bacillus subtilis forms an asymmetric septum, dividing the cell into two compartments, a mother cell and a forespore. The site of asymmetric septation is linked to the membrane where FtsZ and SpoIIE initiate the formation of the Z-ring and the E-ring, respectively. These rings then serve as a scaffold for the other cell division and peptidoglycan synthesizing proteins needed to build the septum. However, despite decades of research, not enough is known about how the asymmetric septation site is determined. Here, we identified and characterized the interaction between SpoIIE and RefZ. We show that these two proteins transiently colocalize during the early stages of asymmetric septum formation when RefZ localizes primarily from the mother cell side of the septum. We propose that these proteins and their interplay with the spatial organization of the chromosome play a role in controlling asymmetric septum positioning.
在芽孢形成过程中，枯草芽孢杆菌形成不对称隔膜，将细胞分为两个隔室，母细胞和前孢子。不对称隔膜的形成部位与 FtsZ 和 SpoIIE 分别启动 Z 环和 E 环形成的膜相连。这些环随后作为支架，为其他细胞分裂和肽聚糖合成蛋白提供所需的物质，以构建隔膜。然而，尽管经过了几十年的研究，但对于不对称隔膜形成部位的确定机制仍知之甚少。在这里，我们鉴定并阐明了 SpoIIE 和 RefZ 之间的相互作用。我们发现，当 RefZ 主要从隔膜的母细胞侧定位时，这两种蛋白质在不对称隔膜形成的早期阶段会短暂地共定位。我们提出，这些蛋白质及其与染色体空间组织的相互作用在控制不对称隔膜定位中发挥作用。
