title: ydfD encodes a novel lytic protein in Escherichia coli.
abstract: Bacteria carry a number of genes that cause cell growth arrest or cell lysis upon expression. Notably, defective prophages retain many lysis proteins. Here, we identified a novel lytic gene, ydfD, on the Qin prophage segment of the Escherichia coli genome. YdfD lyses 99.9% of cells within 2 h of its induction. The co-expression of the upstream gene, dicB, encoding a cell division inhibitor, as well as sulA, encoding another cell division inhibitor, abolished YdfD-induced cell lysis. These results imply that YdfD-induced lysis is a cell division-dependent event. We further found that by deleting the hydrophobic 22-residue N-terminal domain, the resulting 42-residue C-terminal domain was still toxic to cause cell lysis. We propose that YdfD, associated with the cytoplasmic membrane, inhibits an essential cellular process(s).
authors.affiliation: School of Sciences, Department of Chemistry Indiana University Kokomo, 2300 S Washington St, Kokomo, IN 46902, USA;
authors.forename: Hisako
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Masuda
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, and Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, 675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Awano
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, and Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, 675 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA inouye@cabm.rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Masayori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Inouye
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001433:Bacteriolysis / Q000235:genetics*; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000502:physiology; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics*; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D009876:Operon; D011485:Protein Binding; D054730:Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs / Q000235:genetics; D055503:Protein Multimerization
chemical_list: D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins
keywords: Escherichia coli; YdfD; lysis; prophage