title: Phenylpropanoids inhibit protofilament formation of Escherichia coli cell division protein FtsZ.
abstract: The earliest step in cell division in bacteria is the assembly of FtsZ, an essential cell division protein, into a ring at the division site. FtsZ has GTPase activity and can assemble in vitro to form protein filaments. The present work involved the study of eight phenylpropanoids (cinnamic, p-coumaric, caffeic, chlorogenic, ferulic, 3,4-dimethoxycinnamic and 2,4,5-trimethoxycinnamic acids and eugenol) as inhibitors of Escherichia coli FtsZ. Phenylpropanoids make up the majority of our diet and act as antibacterial agents. Polymerization and GTPase inhibition assays showed that chlorogenic and caffeic acids were the most active amongst these (IC(50) of 70 and 106 µM, respectively). Circular dichroism studies indicated that chlorogenic acid perturbed the protein conformation and electron microscopy showed distorted filaments. Bacillus subtilis 168 cells treated with the phenylpropanoids were longer when compared to the control. The highest binding energy was observed between chlorogenic acid and the homology modelled E. coli FtsZ, which was consistent with the experimental results. A strong negative correlation was observed between binding energy and inhibition of the polymerization ability. 3D-Quantitative structure-activity relationship studies using GTPase activity indicated that the presence of more hydrophilic groups around the 3'- and 4'-carbon increased the activity. The effect of stress-induced formation of cell filamentation has to be understood before confirming the role of phenylpropanoids as FtsZ inhibitors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600 036, India.
authors.forename: Shanmugam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hemaiswarya
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600 036, India.
authors.forename: Rohini
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Soudaminikkutty
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600 036, India.
authors.forename: Mohana Lakshmi
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Narasumani
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600 036, India.
authors.forename: Mukesh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Doble
mesh_terms: D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D002455:Cell Division / Q000187:drug effects*; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects*; D020558:GTP Phosphohydrolases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors; D020128:Inhibitory Concentration 50; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000378:metabolism*; D055503:Protein Multimerization / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; C071525:FtsZ protein, Bacteria; D009930:Organic Chemicals; D020558:GTP Phosphohydrolases