title: Co-evolution of segregation guide DNA motifs and the FtsK translocase in bacteria: identification of the atypical Lactococcus lactis KOPS motif.
abstract: Bacteria use the global bipolarization of their chromosomes into replichores to control the dynamics and segregation of their genome during the cell cycle. This involves the control of protein activities by recognition of specific short DNA motifs whose orientation along the chromosome is highly skewed. The KOPS motifs act in chromosome segregation by orienting the activity of the FtsK DNA translocase towards the terminal replichore junction. KOPS motifs have been identified in γ-Proteobacteria and in Bacillus subtilis as closely related G-rich octamers. We have identified the KOPS motif of Lactococcus lactis, a model bacteria of the Streptococcaceae family harbouring a compact and low GC% genome. This motif, 5'-GAAGAAG-3, was predicted in silico using the occurrence and skew characteristics of known KOPS motifs. We show that it is specifically recognized by L. lactis FtsK in vitro and controls its activity in vivo. L. lactis KOPS is thus an A-rich heptamer motif. Our results show that KOPS-controlled chromosome segregation is conserved in Streptococcaceae but that KOPS may show important variation in sequence and length between bacterial families. This suggests that FtsK adapts to its host genome by selecting motifs with convenient occurrence frequencies and orientation skews to orient its activity.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Microbiologie et de Génétique Moléculaire, CNRS, Université de Toulouse, Université Paul Sabatier, F-31000, Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nolivos
authors.forename: Fabrice
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Touzain
authors.forename: Carine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pages
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Coddeville
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rousseau
authors.forename: Meriem
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: El Karoui
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Le Bourgeois
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cornet
mesh_terms: D000251:Adenosine Triphosphatases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D001665:Binding Sites; D002876:Chromosomes, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D013294:Lactococcus lactis / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D059372:Nucleotide Motifs; D055503:Protein Multimerization; D021381:Protein Transport; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; C096452:FtsK protein, E coli; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D000251:Adenosine Triphosphatases