Abstract
The FrzCD chemoreceptor from the gliding bacterium Myxococcus xanthus forms cytoplasmic clusters that occupy a large central region of the cell body also occupied by the nucleoid. In this work, we show that FrzCD directly binds to the nucleoid with its N-terminal positively charged tail and recruits active signaling complexes at this location. The FrzCD binding to the nucleoid occur in a DNA-sequence independent manner and leads to the formation of multiple distributed clusters that explore constrained areas. This organization might be required for cooperative interactions between clustered receptors as observed in membrane-bound chemosensory arrays.
MeSH terms
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Bacterial Proteins / genetics
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Bacterial Proteins / metabolism*
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Chemotaxis / genetics
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Cytoplasm / metabolism
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Myxococcus xanthus / metabolism
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Protein Binding
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Signal Transduction / genetics
Substances
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Bacterial Proteins
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FrzCD protein, Myxococcus xanthus
Grants and funding
Research on chemotaxis in our laboratory is funded by the Agence National de la Recherche Jeune Chercheur-Jeune Chercheuse (ANR-14-CE11-0023-01) to EMFM and the “Fondation Amidex” award to EM and TM. MY, PJJ, and PG acknowledge fellowships from INSPIRE, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India and the work in the lab at IISER Pune is supported by Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award (IYBA from Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India), Indian National Science Academy (INSA), and Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), DST. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.