Different patterns of integral membrane protein localization during cell division in Bacillus subtilis

The bacterial tubulin FtsZ requires its intrinsically disordered linker to direct robust cell wall construction

The bacterial GTPase FtsZ forms a cytokinetic ring at midcell, recruits the division machinery, and orchestrates membrane and peptidoglycan cell wall invagination. However, the mechanism for FtsZ regulation of peptidoglycan metabolism is unknown. The FtsZ GTPase domain is separated from its membrane-anchoring C-terminal conserved (CTC) peptide by a disordered C-terminal linker (CTL). Here, we investigate CTL function in Caulobacter crescentus. Strikingly, production of FtsZ lacking the CTL (ΔCTL) is lethal: cells become filamentous, form envelope bulges, and lyse, resembling treatment with β-lactam antibiotics. This phenotype is produced by FtsZ polymers bearing the CTC and a CTL shorter than 14 residues. Peptidoglycan synthesis still occurs downstream of ΔCTL, however cells expressing ΔCTL exhibit reduced peptidoglycan crosslinking and longer glycan strands than wildtype. Importantly, midcell proteins are still recruited to sites of ΔCTL assembly. We propose that FtsZ regulates peptidoglycan metabolism through a CTL-dependent mechanism that extends beyond simple protein recruitment.

The membrane: transertion as an organizing principle in membrane heterogeneity

The bacterial membrane exhibits a significantly heterogeneous distribution of lipids and proteins. This heterogeneity results mainly from lipid-lipid, protein-protein, and lipid-protein associations which are orchestrated by the coupled transcription, translation and insertion of nascent proteins into and through membrane (transertion). Transertion is central not only to the individual assembly and disassembly of large physically linked groups of macromolecules (alias hyperstructures) but also to the interactions between these hyperstructures. We review here these interactions in the context of the processes in Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli of nutrient sensing, membrane synthesis, cytoskeletal dynamics, DNA replication, chromosome segregation, and cell division.

Organization of the Escherichia coli aerobic enzyme complexes of oxidative phosphorylation in dynamic domains within the cytoplasmic membrane

The Escherichia coli cytoplasmic membrane contains the enzyme complexes of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). Not much is known about their supramolecular organization and their dynamics within the membrane in this model organism. In mitochondria and other bacteria, it was demonstrated by nondenaturing electrophoretic methods and electron microscopy that the OXPHOS complexes are organized in so-called supercomplexes, stable assemblies with a defined number of the individual enzyme complexes. To investigate the organization of the E. coli enzyme complexes of aerobic OXPHOS in vivo, we established fluorescent protein fusions of the NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase, the succinate:ubiquinone oxidoreductase, the cytochrome bd-I, and the cytochrome bo₃ terminal oxidases, and the F_oF₁ ATP-synthase. The fusions were integrated in the chromosome to prevent artifacts caused by protein overproduction. Biochemical analysis revealed that all modified complexes were fully assembled, active, and stable. The distribution of the OXPHOS complexes in living cells was determined using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy. The dynamics within the membrane were detected by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching. All aerobic OXPHOS complexes showed an uneven distribution in large mobile patches within the E. coli cytoplasmic membrane. It is discussed whether the individual OXPHOS complexes are organized as clustered individual complexes, here called “segrazones.”

Imaging-based identification of a critical regulator of FtsZ protofilament curvature in Caulobacter

FtsZ is an essential bacterial GTPase that polymerizes at midcell, recruits the division machinery, and may generate constrictive forces necessary for cytokinesis. However, many of the mechanistic details underlying these functions are unknown. We sought to identify FtsZ-binding proteins that influence FtsZ function in Caulobacter crescentus. Here, we present a microscopy-based screen through which we discovered two FtsZ-binding proteins, FzlA and FzlC. FzlA is conserved in α-proteobacteria and was found to be functionally critical for cell division in Caulobacter. FzlA altered FtsZ structure both in vivo and in vitro, forming stable higher-order structures that were resistant to depolymerization by MipZ, a spatial determinant of FtsZ assembly. Electron microscopy revealed that FzlA organizes FtsZ protofilaments into striking helical bundles. The degree of curvature induced by FzlA depended on the nucleotide bound to FtsZ. Induction of FtsZ curvature by FzlA carries implications for regulating FtsZ function by modulating its superstructure.

Influence of the nucleoid and the early stages of DNA replication on positioning the division site in Bacillus subtilis

Although division site positioning in rod-shaped bacteria is generally believed to occur through the combined effect of nucleoid occlusion and the Min system, several lines of evidence suggest the existence of additional mechanisms. Studies using outgrown spores of Bacillus subtilis have shown that inhibiting the early stages of DNA replication, leading up to assembly of the replisome at oriC, influences Z ring positioning. Here we examine whether Z ring formation at midcell under various conditions of DNA replication inhibition is solely the result of relief of nucleoid occlusion. We show that midcell Z rings form preferentially over unreplicated nucleoids that have a bilobed morphology (lowering DNA concentration at midcell), whereas acentral Z rings form beside a single-lobed nucleoid. Remarkably however, when the DnaB replication initiation protein is inactivated midcell Z rings never form over bilobed nucleoids. Relieving nucleoid occlusion by deleting noc increased midcell Z ring frequency for all situations of DNA replication inhibition, however not to the same extent, with the DnaB-inactivated strain having the lowest frequency of midcell Z rings. We propose an additional mechanism for Z ring positioning in which the division site becomes increasingly potentiated for Z ring formation as initiation of replication is progressively completed.