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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2008, p. 6739-6745, Vol. 74, No. 21
0099-2240/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01021-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Dynamic Localization of MreB in Vibrio parahaemolyticus and in the Ectopic Host Bacterium Escherichia coli{triangledown}

Shen-Wen Chiu, Shau-Yan Chen, and Hin-chung Wong*

Department of Microbiology, Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan 111, Republic of China

Received 6 May 2008/ Accepted 28 August 2008

MreB, a homolog of eukaryotic actin, participates in morphogenesis, cell division, cell polarity, and chromosome segregation in prokaryotes. In this study, a yellow fluorescent protein conjugate (YFP-MreBVp) was generated to investigate the behavior of MreB in merodiploid strain SC9 of the enteropathogen Vibrio parahaemolyticus. Under normal growth conditions, YFP-MreBVp formed helical filaments with a pitch of 0.64 ± 0.09 µm in about 85% of exponential-phase cells, and different clusters, relaxed coils, and ring configurations were observed in a small proportion of the cells. Overexpression of YFP-MreBVp substantially altered the structure of the MreB cytoskeleton and resulted in swollen and pleomorphic cells. Disturbing the activities of penicillin-binding proteins or adding magnesium suppressed the morphological distortions. These results indicate that mislocalization of cell wall-synthesizing machinery was responsible for morphological abnormality. By expressing YFP-MreBVp in the ectopic host bacterium Escherichia coli, shrinkage, fragmentation, and annealing of MreBVp filaments were directly observed. This work revealed the dynamic pattern of the localization of YFP-MreBVp in V. parahaemolyticus and its relationship to cell morphogenesis, and the YFP-MreBVp-E. coli system may be used to investigate the dynamic spatial structures of the MreB cytoskeleton in vivo.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan 111, Republic of China. Phone: (886) 2-28819471, ext. 6852. Fax: (886) 2-28831193. E-mail: wonghc{at}scu.edu.tw

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 12 September 2008.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2008, p. 6739-6745, Vol. 74, No. 21
0099-2240/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01021-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Davidsen, T., Beck, E., Ganapathy, A., Montgomery, R., Zafar, N., Yang, Q., Madupu, R., Goetz, P., Galinsky, K., White, O., Sutton, G. (2009). The comprehensive microbial resource. Nucleic Acids Res 0: gkp912v1-gkp912 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Chiu, S.-W., Chen, S.-Y., Wong, H.-c. (2008). Localization and Expression of MreB in Vibrio parahaemolyticus under Different Stresses. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 74: 7016-7022 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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