Peptidoglycan Synthesis Drives a Single Population of Septal Cell Wall Synthases During Division in Bacillus Subtilis

Overview

Journal Nat Microbiol

Specialties Microbiology
Parasitology

Date 2024 Mar 14

PMID 38480901

Authors

Kevin D Whitley

James Grimshaw

David M Roberts

Eleni Karinou

Phillip J Stansfeld

Seamus Holden

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Bacterial cell division requires septal peptidoglycan (sPG) synthesis by the divisome complex. Treadmilling of the essential tubulin homologue FtsZ has been implicated in septal constriction, though its precise role remains unclear. Here we used live-cell single-molecule imaging of the divisome transpeptidase PBP2B to investigate sPG synthesis dynamics in Bacillus subtilis. In contrast to previous models, we observed a single population of processively moving PBP2B molecules whose motion is driven by peptidoglycan synthesis and is not associated with FtsZ treadmilling. However, despite the asynchronous motions of PBP2B and FtsZ, a partial dependence of PBP2B processivity on FtsZ treadmilling was observed. Additionally, through single-molecule counting experiments we provide evidence that the divisome synthesis complex is multimeric. Our results support a model for B. subtilis division where a multimeric synthesis complex follows a single track dependent on sPG synthesis whose activity and dynamics are asynchronous with FtsZ treadmilling.

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Peptidoglycan synthesis drives a single population of septal cell wall synthases during division in Bacillus subtilis.

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