Title
Suppression of a thermosensitive zipA cell division mutant by altering amino acid metabolism
Date Issued
01 January 2018
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Margolin W.
McGovern Medical School
Publisher(s)
American Society for Microbiology
Abstract
ZipA is essential for cell division in Escherichia coli, acting early in the process to anchor polymers of FtsZ to the cytoplasmic membrane. Along with FtsA, FtsZ and ZipA form a proto-ring at midcell that recruits additional proteins to eventually build the division septum. Cells carrying the thermosensitive zipA1 allele divide fairly normally at 30°C in rich medium but cease dividing at temperatures above 34°C, forming long filaments. In a search for suppressors of the zipA1 allele, we found that deletions of specific genes involved in amino acid biosynthesis could partially rescue cell growth and division at 34°C or 37°C but not at 42°C. Notably, although a diverse group of amino acid biosynthesis gene deletions could partially rescue the growth of zipA1 cells at 34°C, only deletions of genes related to the biosynthesis of threonine, glycine, serine, and methionine could rescue growth at 37°C. Adding exogenous pyridoxal 5-phosphate (PLP), a cofactor for many of the enzymes affected by this study, partially suppressed zipA1 mutant thermosensitivity. For many of the deletions, PLP had an additive rescuing effect on the zipA1 mutant. Moreover, added PLP partially suppressed the thermosensitivity of ftsQ and ftsK mutants and weakly suppressed an ftsI mutant, but it failed to suppress ftsA or ftsZ thermosensitive mutants. Along with the ability of a deletion of metC to partially suppress the ftsK mutant, our results suggest that perturbations of amino acid metabolic pathways, particularly those that redirect the flow of carbon away from the synthesis of threonine, glycine, or methionine, are able to partially rescue some cell division defects.
Volume
200
Issue
2
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Biología celular, Microbiología
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85039076356
PubMed ID
Source
Journal of Bacteriology
ISSN of the container
00219193
Sponsor(s)
We thank Marcin Krupka, Steven Distelhorst, and Kara Schoenemann for helpful discussions, Jiqiang Ling for generously sharing his Keio strain collection, and Kevin Morano for the use of his microplate reader. This work was supported by NIH award GM61074 to W.M.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus