Pereira, A.R., Hsin, J., Król, E. et al. (12 more authors) (2016) FtsZ-dependent elongation of a coccoid bacterium. mBio, 7 (5).
Abstract
A mechanistic understanding of the determination and maintenance of the simplest bacterial cell shape, a sphere, remains elusive compared with that of more complex shapes. Cocci seem to lack a dedicated elongation machinery, and a spherical shape has been considered an evolutionary dead-end morphology, as a transition from a spherical to a rod-like shape has never been observed in bacteria. Here we show that a Staphylococcus aureus mutant (M5) expressing the ftsZG193D allele exhibits elongated cells. Molecular dynamics simulations and in vitro studies indicate that FtsZG193D filaments are more twisted and shorter than wild-type filaments. In vivo, M5 cell wall deposition is initiated asymmetrically, only on one side of the cell, and progresses into a helical pattern rather than into a constricting ring as in wild-type cells. This helical pattern of wall insertion leads to elongation, as in rod-shaped cells. Thus, structural flexibility of FtsZ filaments can result in an FtsZ-dependent mechanism for generating elongated cells from cocci.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 The Authors. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Bacterial Proteins; Cytoskeletal Proteins; Microscopy; Molecular Dynamics Simulation; Mutant Proteins; Mutation, Missense; Protein Conformation; Staphylococcus aureus |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) > Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 07 Oct 2020 07:59 |
Last Modified: | 09 Oct 2020 05:01 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Society for Microbiology |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1128/mbio.00908-16 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:165921 |
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