PREreview of MraZ is a transcriptional inhibitor of cell division in Bacillus subtilis

This study elucidates a transcriptional regulatory perspective to the cell cycle arrest and control in Bacillus subtilis.

Using IPTG inducible MraZ, it was shown the overproduction of this gene produces distinctly long bacteria (Fig. 1 A, C and D) which strongly suggests a cell division arrest. This arrest is also shown to be lethal to the bacteria as the OD values show (Fig. 1 B) which is in line with the previous studies performed on E. coli.

Subsequently, colocalisation of MraZ with the chromosome binding via very specific domains at the 5' end. This is very neatly confirmed via multiple IPTG induction experiments with the WT mraZ and its mutants.

Finally, it was shown that the supression of ftsL, a crucial protein in the Mra operon, is what is responsible for this cell cycle arrest.

Overall, the study neatly provides a novel insight into the cell cycle control via transciptional regulation, which in this specific case happens via the MraZ. The only drawback felt was that the claims about the binding due to the MraZ binding repeats (MBRs) could have been supplemented with structural data that could have provided a more satisfactory addition to the data. Although, the data provided is strong enough for the claims made and, as such, a study on the structure and related function of these domains can also be a part of a future study.