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Project

Cell envelope quality control by an essential GTPase as a novel cell cycle checkpoint in Escherichia coli

A thorough understanding of bacterial cell division and how this process is regulated is extremely valuable, not only from a fundamental point of view, but also from a clinical perspective. By interfering with the proper progression of this vital process, bacterial infections could be eradicated. However, at present, our insight into the regulation of bacterial cell division is limited, since regulatory factors that have been described are often only of minor importance. Additional systems for cell division control are therefore hypothesized but remain to be identified. While studying the cellular functions of the essential but enigmatic GTPase ObgE, we discovered that a mutant isoform of this protein blocks cell division. Interestingly, this division arrest is alleviated by mutations in LpxA, a hub in the production of different layers of the bacterial cell envelope. These data thus show that changes in the cell envelope affect the cell’s ability to divide. We therefore hypothesize that cell envelope status is an important regulatory factor in bacterial cell division that can be influenced by the ObgE protein. In this project, we aim to validate this hypothesis. More specifically, we will investigate how the cell envelope influences cell division and we will characterize the role of ObgE in this regulatory network.
 

Date:1 Oct 2018 →  30 Sep 2023
Keywords:cell envelope quality control, GTPase
Disciplines:Scientific computing, Bioinformatics and computational biology, Public health care, Public health services, Genetics, Systems biology, Molecular and cell biology, Microbiology, Laboratory medicine, Biomaterials engineering, Biological system engineering, Biomechanical engineering, Other (bio)medical engineering, Environmental engineering and biotechnology, Industrial biotechnology, Other biotechnology, bio-engineering and biosystem engineering