The positioning of the asymmetric septum during sporulation in Bacillus subtilis

PLoS One. 2018 Aug 9;13(8):e0201979. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0201979. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Probably one of the most controversial questions about the cell division of Bacillus subtilis, a rod-shaped bacterium, concerns the mechanism that ensures correct division septum placement-at mid-cell during vegetative growth but closer to one end during sporulation. In general, bacteria multiply by binary fission, in which the division septum forms almost exactly at the cell centre. How the division machinery achieves such accuracy is a question of continuing interest. We understand in some detail how this is achieved during vegetative growth in Escherichia coli and B. subtilis, where two main negative regulators, nucleoid occlusion and the Min system, help to determine the division site, but we still do not know exactly how the asymmetric septation site is determined during sporulation in B. subtilis. Clearly, the inhibitory effects of the nucleoid occlusion and Min system on polar division have to be overcome. We evaluated the positioning of the asymmetric septum and its accuracy by statistical analysis of the site of septation. We also clarified the role of SpoIIE, RefZ and MinCD on the accuracy of this process. We determined that the sporulation septum forms approximately 1/6 of a cell length from one of the cell poles with high precision and that SpoIIE, RefZ and MinCD have a crucial role in precisely localizing the sporulation septum. Our results strongly support the idea that asymmetric septum formation is a very precise and highly controlled process regulated by a still unknown mechanism.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bacillus subtilis / growth & development*
  • Bacterial Proteins / chemistry
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics*
  • Cell Division
  • Cytoskeletal Proteins / chemistry
  • Cytoskeletal Proteins / genetics
  • Escherichia coli / growth & development
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
  • Microscopy, Fluorescence
  • Mutation
  • Spores, Bacterial / growth & development*

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins
  • Cytoskeletal Proteins

Grants and funding

This work was supported by VEGA Grant 2/0007/17 from the Slovak Academy of Sciences, by a Grant from the Slovak Research and Development Agency under contract APVV-14-0181 and by the Research and Development Operational Programme funded by the ERDF (ITMS code: 26240220071 and 26240220008). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.