Article
- The EMBO Journal (2009) 28, 193 - 204
- doi:10.1038/emboj.2008.264
Published online: 11 December 2008
There is a Have you seen ...? (February 2009) associated with this Article.
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RodZ (YfgA) is required for proper assembly of the MreB actin cytoskeleton and cell shape in E. coli
Felipe O Bendezú1,a, Cynthia A Hale1, Thomas G Bernhardt1,b and Piet A J de Boer1
- Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
Correspondence to:
Piet A J de Boer, Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, W213, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA. Tel.: +1 216 368 1697; Fax: +1 216 368 3055; E-mail: pad5@case.edu
aPresent address: Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
bPresent address: Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Received 8 November 2008; Accepted 24 November 2008
Abstract
The bacterial MreB actin cytoskeleton is required for cell shape maintenance in most non-spherical organisms. In rod-shaped cells such as Escherichia coli, it typically assembles along the long axis in a spiral-like configuration just underneath the cytoplasmic membrane. How this configuration is controlled and how it helps dictate cell shape is unclear. In a new genetic screen for cell shape mutants, we identified RodZ (YfgA) as an important transmembrane component of the cytoskeleton. Loss of RodZ leads to misassembly of MreB into non-spiral structures, and a consequent loss of cell shape. A juxta-membrane domain of RodZ is essential to maintain rod shape, whereas other domains on either side of the membrane have critical, but partially redundant, functions. Though one of these domains resembles a DNA-binding motif, our evidence indicates that it is primarily responsible for association of RodZ with the cytoskeleton.
Keywords:
- MreC,
- MreD,
- PBP2,
- RodA,
- FtsZ
