Skip to main content

Write a PREreview

MraZ is a transcriptional inhibitor of cell division in Bacillus subtilis

Posted
Server
bioRxiv
DOI
10.1101/2022.02.09.479790

The bacterial division and cell wall (dcw) cluster is a highly conserved region of the genome which encodes several essential cell division factors including the central divisome protein FtsZ. Understanding the regulation of this region is key to our overall understanding of the division process. mraZ is found at the 5’ end of the dcw cluster and previous studies have described MraZ as a sequence-specific DNA binding protein. In this article, we investigate MraZ to elucidate its role in Bacillus subtilis. Through our investigation, we demonstrate that increased levels of MraZ result in lethal filamentation due to repression of its own operon (mraZ-mraW-ftsL-pbpB). We observe rescue of filamentation upon decoupling ftsL expression, but not other genes in the operon, from MraZ control. Furthermore, through timelapse microscopy we were able to identify that overexpression of mraZ, results in de-condensation of the FtsZ ring (Z-ring). This is likely due to depletion of FtsL, and thus, we believe the precise role of FtsL is likely in Z-ring maturation and promotion of subsequent treadmilling. Our data suggests that regulation of the mra operon may be an alternative way for cells to quickly arrest cytokinesis potentially during entry into stationary phase and in the event of DNA replication arrest.

You can write a PREreview of MraZ is a transcriptional inhibitor of cell division in Bacillus subtilis. A PREreview is a review of a preprint and can vary from a few sentences to a lengthy report, similar to a journal-organized peer-review report.

Before you start

We will ask you to log in with your ORCID iD. If you don’t have an iD, you can create one.

What is an ORCID iD?

An ORCID iD is a unique identifier that distinguishes you from everyone with the same or similar name.

Start now