Study of regulatory mechanism of bacterial cell division machinary

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24580112
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Applied microbiology
• Research Institution: Nara Institute of Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: ISHIKAWA Shu 奈良先端科学技術大学院大学, バイオサイエンス研究科, 助教 (30359872)
• Research Collaborator: HAMOEN Leendert W. アムステルダム大学(オランダ), Institute for Life Sciences, 准教授
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 細胞分裂 / 枯草菌 / SepF / FtsZ / FtsA / EzrA

Outline of Final Research Achievements

FtsZ plays a pivotal role in bacterial cell division; however, it has no membrane binding region, and thus, a protein that anchors FtsZ to the cell membrane is essential. In Escherichia coli and Cyanobacteria, it has been proposed that FtsA and SepF work as such tethering proteins, respectively, and it has been known that these factors are essential for cell growth. On the other hand, in Bacillus subtilis, in addition to both factors, there also exists EzrA which has been predicted to have similar role as well. Therefore, it is known that one of these can be disrupted. In this study,(1) we elucidated the mechanism how SepF anchors FtsZ on the cell membrane by multiple experiments such as yeast two-hybrid analysis, crystallography and ultramicroscopic observation. (2) We also showed that EzrA has no direct interaction with FtsZ but direct binding to FtsA, to control Z-ring dynamism via interaction to FtsA that directly interacts with FtsZ.

Free Research Field

微生物学