TY - JOUR
T1 - The rapid onset of elasticity during the assembly of the bacterial cell-division protein FtsZ
AU - Esue, Osigwe
AU - Tseng, Yiider
AU - Wirtz, Denis
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Ben Schafer and Sean Sun for useful discussions and Harold Erickson for kindly providing us with E. coli FtsZ cDNA. The authors acknowledge financial support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NAG9-1563) and the National Institutes of Health (GM075305).
PY - 2005/7/29
Y1 - 2005/7/29
N2 - FtsZ, a prokaryotic homolog of eukaryotic tubulin, is a major constituent of the bacterial Z-ring, which contracts the cell wall during cell division. Because the mechanical properties of FtsZ are unknown, its function in the maintenance and constriction of the Z-ring is not well understood. Here, quantitative rheometry shows that, at physiological concentrations, FtsZ filaments form, extremely rapidly, highly elastic networks within physiological time scales (∼ minutes), much faster than other major dynamic cytoskeletal filaments, including microtubule, actin, and vimentin in eukaryotes. FtsZ networks display a relatively low viscosity and a high resilience against shear stresses, as well as an elasticity that depends weakly on concentration, G ∼ C0.57, a power-law dependence consistent with crosslinked flexible filaments. Calcium, whose intracellular concentration increases during bacterial division, further enhances the elasticity of FtsZ networks through filament bundling, an effect that occurs in the presence of GTP, not GDP. These studies suggest that FtsZ filaments have the toughness to provide strong mechanical support for the maintenance and circumferential constriction of the bacterial Z-ring.
AB - FtsZ, a prokaryotic homolog of eukaryotic tubulin, is a major constituent of the bacterial Z-ring, which contracts the cell wall during cell division. Because the mechanical properties of FtsZ are unknown, its function in the maintenance and constriction of the Z-ring is not well understood. Here, quantitative rheometry shows that, at physiological concentrations, FtsZ filaments form, extremely rapidly, highly elastic networks within physiological time scales (∼ minutes), much faster than other major dynamic cytoskeletal filaments, including microtubule, actin, and vimentin in eukaryotes. FtsZ networks display a relatively low viscosity and a high resilience against shear stresses, as well as an elasticity that depends weakly on concentration, G ∼ C0.57, a power-law dependence consistent with crosslinked flexible filaments. Calcium, whose intracellular concentration increases during bacterial division, further enhances the elasticity of FtsZ networks through filament bundling, an effect that occurs in the presence of GTP, not GDP. These studies suggest that FtsZ filaments have the toughness to provide strong mechanical support for the maintenance and circumferential constriction of the bacterial Z-ring.
KW - Bacterial division
KW - FtsZ
KW - In vitro
KW - Z-ring
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U2 - 10.1016/j.bbrc.2005.05.152
DO - 10.1016/j.bbrc.2005.05.152
M3 - Article
C2 - 15950938
AN - SCOPUS:20544468417
SN - 0006-291X
VL - 333
SP - 508
EP - 516
JO - Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
JF - Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
IS - 2
ER -