Enterococcus faecalis divIVA: an essential gene involved in cell division, cell growth and chromosome segregation.
Enterococcus faecalis divIVA (divIVAEf) is an essential gene implicated in cell division and chromosome segregation. This gene was disrupted by insertional inactivation creating E. faecalis JHSR1, which was viable only when a wild-type copy of divIVAEf was expressed in trans, confirming the essentiality of the gene. The absence of DivIVAEf in E. faecalis JHSR1 inhibited proper cell division, which resulted in abnormal cell clusters possessing enlarged cells of altered shape instead of the characteristic diplococcal morphology of enterococci. The lower viability of the divIVAEf mutant is caused by improper nucleoid segregation and impaired septation within the numerous cells generated in each cluster. Overexpression of DivIVAEf in Escherichia coli KJB24 resulted in enlarged cells with disrupted cell division, suggesting that this round E. coli mutant strain could be used as an indicator for functionality of DivIVAEf. A Bacillus subtilis divIVA mutant was not complemented by DivIVAEf, indicating that this protein does not recognize DivIVA-specific target sites in B. subtilis, or that it does not interact with other proteins of the cell division machinery of this micro-organism. DivIVAEf also failed to complement a Streptococcus pneumoniae divIVA mutant, supporting the phylogenetic distance between Enterococcus and Streptococcus. Our results indicate that DivIVA is a species-specific multifunctional protein implicated in cell division and chromosome segregation in E. faecalis.
Ramirez-Arcos
Sandra
S
Centre for Research in Biopharmaceuticals and Biotechnology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1H 8M5.|Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1H 8M5.
Liao
Mingmin
M
Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1H 8M5.
Marthaler
Susan
S
Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1H 8M5.
Rigden
Marc
M
Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1H 8M5.
Dillon
Jo-Anne R
JR
Centre for Research in Biopharmaceuticals and Biotechnology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1H 8M5.|Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1H 8M5.
D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D002455:Cell Division; D020090:Chromosome Segregation; D013293:Enterococcus faecalis / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D017353:Gene Deletion; D020043:Genes, Essential; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013045:Species Specificity
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; C104636:DivIVA protein, bacteria