title: An intrinsically disordered linker plays a critical role in bacterial cell division.
abstract: In bacteria, animals, fungi, and many single celled eukaryotes, division is initiated by the formation of a ring of cytoskeletal protein at the nascent division site. In bacteria, the tubulin-like GTPase FtsZ serves as the foundation for the cytokinetic ring. A conserved feature of FtsZ is an intrinsically disordered peptide known as the C-terminal linker. Chimeric experiments suggest the linker acts as a flexible boom allowing FtsZ to associate with the membrane through a conserved C-terminal domain and also modulates interactions both between FtsZ subunits and between FtsZ and modulatory proteins in the cytoplasm.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology and The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Buske
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering & Center for Biological Systems Engineering, Saint Louis, MO 63130, USA.
authors.forename: Anuradha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mittal
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering & Center for Biological Systems Engineering, Saint Louis, MO 63130, USA.
authors.forename: Rohit V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Pappu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA. Electronic address: plevin@wustl.edu.
authors.forename: Petra Anne
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Levin
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D002455:Cell Division; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D064267:Intrinsically Disordered Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; C071525:FtsZ protein, Bacteria; D064267:Intrinsically Disordered Proteins
keywords: Bacteria; Cell division; Cooperative assembly; Cytokinetic ring; FtsZ; Intrinsically disordered peptide