C 6: Regulation of bacterial cell division by proteolysis
Dr. Marc Bramkamp
since 1.04.2012: Department Biologie I, Bereich Mikrobiologie
email: marc.bramkamp@lmu.de
phone: +49 (0)89 2180-74611
website
until 31.03.2012: Institut für Biochemie, Universität Köln
Running time: 2007 – 2011
Abstract
Bacteria initiate division by assembling a macromolecular machinery between the segregated nucleoids. The proteins of the cytokinetic ring were extensively studied, however, regulatory aspects of cell division remained largely elusive. We found that the Bacillus subtilis division protein FtsL is cleaved by a site-2 protease, YluC. Thus FtsL is a novel substrate of regulated intramembrane proteolysis (RIP). A yluC mutant and stabilised ftsL mutants exhibit a short cell length phenotype, suggesting that FtsL is normally rate limiting for cell division. Here we aim to examine the molecular details of FtsL cleavage and its implications for cell division.
(A final report will follow.)
Publications resulting from the project:
Wadenpohl, I. and Bramkamp, M. (2010). DivIC stabilizes FtsL against RasP cleavage. J. Bacteriol. 192, 5260-5263.
Bramkamp, M. (2010). The putative Bacillus subtilis L,D-transpeptidase YciB is a lipoprotein that localizes to the cell poles in a divisome dependent manner. Arch. Microbiol. 192, 57-68.
Wadenpohl, I. and Bramkamp, M. (2010). Fluoreszierende Proteine als Werkzeuge in der Mikrobiologie. BIOspektrum, 1/2010, 51-53. (invited review)
Schultz, C., Niebisch, A., Schwaiger, A., Viets, U., Metzger, S., Bramkamp, M., and Bott, M. (2009). Genetic and biochemical analysis of the serine/threonine protein kinases PknA, PknB, PknG and PknL of Corynebacterium glutamicum: evidence for non-essentiality and for phosphorylation of OdhI and FtsZ by multiple kinases. Mol Microbiol. 74, 724-741.
Donovan, C. and Bramkamp, M. (2009). Characterization and subcellular localization of a bacterial flotillin homologue. Microbiology 155, 1786-1799.
Bramkamp, M., Weston, L., Daniel, R., and Errington, J. (2006). Regulated intramembrane proteolysis of FtsL protein during cell division in Bacillus subtilis. Mol. Microbiol. 62, 580-591.