Self-organization of the bacterial cell division machinery

Microbiology Seminar Series

  • Datum: 06.05.2019
  • Uhrzeit: 13:15
  • Vortragende(r): Dr. Martin Loose
  • Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Self-Organization of Protein Systems, Klosterneuburg
  • Ort: MPI for Terrestrial Microbiology
  • Raum: Lecture hall
  • Gastgeber: Dr. Andreas Diepold
  • Kontakt: andreas.diepold@mpi-marburg.mpg.de

Bacterial cell division is initiated by FtsZ, a tubulin-related protein that assembles into a dynamic cytoskeletal ring at the center of the cell. This so-called Z-ring recruits about a dozen other proteins that together split the cell into two. Even though we probably have identified all proteins required for bacterial cell division, how the components of the bacterial cell division machinery organize and act together at the right place and time is not yet clear. In my talk, I will present our recent work on the mechanism of bacterial cell division using a bottom-up in vitro approach. I will show how proteins associated to FtsZ modulate the dynamics and organization of filaments and how treadmilling filaments distribute cell division proteins in the membrane. At the end of my talk, I will discuss a novel mechanism available to treadmilling filaments to organize and transmit spatiotemporal information in living cells.

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