Ra. Daniel et al., CHARACTERIZATION OF THE ESSENTIAL CELL-DIVISION GENE FTSL (YLLD) OF BACILLUS-SUBTILIS AND ITS ROLE IN THE ASSEMBLY OF THE DIVISION APPARATUS, Molecular microbiology, 29(2), 1998, pp. 593-604
We have identified the Bacillus subtilis homologue of the essential ce
ll division gene, ftsL, of Escherichia coli, Repression of ftsL in a s
train engineered to carry a conditional promoter results in cell filam
entation, with a near immediate arrest of cell division. The filaments
show no sign of invagination, indicating that division is blocked at
an early stage, ftsL is also shown to be required for septation during
sporulation, and depletion of FtsL blocks the activation but not the
synthesis of the prespore-specific sigma factor, sigma(F). Immunofluor
escence microscopy shows that depletion of FtsL has little or no effec
t on FtsZ ring formation, but the assembly of other division proteins,
DivlB and DivlC, at the site of division is prevented. Repression of
FtsL also results in a rapid loss of DivlC protein, indicating hat Div
l2 stability is dependent on the presence of FtsL, in turn suggesting
that FtsL is intrinsically unstable. The instability of one or more co
mponents of the division apparatus may be important for the cyclic ass
embly/disassembly of the division apparatus.