A Two-component System is Involved in the Localization of Divisome Proteins in Streptococcus pneumoniae

REINOSO VIZCAÍNO, NICOLÁS MARTÍN; CORTÉS, PAULO RICARDO; ECHENIQUE, JOSÉ RICARDO; YANDAR BARAHONA, NUBIA

Cordoba

Congreso; LII Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular (SAIB); 2016

SAIB

In bacteria, cell division is carried out by more than 15 proteins which assemble at midcell and constitute a complex named divisome. It has been described that signal transduction systems, known as two-component systems (TCS), are involved in the coordination of cell wall biosynthesis and cell division mechanism. To determine the putative contribution of a TCS in the localization of divisome proteins, we analysed mutants of this TCS and we determined the localization of StkP. For this purpose, we cloned and fused the stkP gene with the gfp gene in a replicative vector for S. pneumoniae. According to previous reports, the StkP-GFP fusion proteins showed normal localization in the wild-type strain. In particular, we analyzed an hk mutant, here referred as divH mutant, which showed an altered pattern of cell division and also it presented a relocation of GFP-StkP fusion protein. Approximately a 22% of the divH mutant cells showed an elongated morphology and an altered StkP-GFP localization with multiple septum. These results suggested that this TCS is involved in the cell division mechanism and contribute to the localization of StkP, one of the main coordinators of the cell division mechanism of S. pneumoniae.