Bactofilins are essential spatial organizers of peptidoglycan insertion in the Lyme disease spirochete <i>Borrelia burgdorferi</i>.

ABSTRACT: The Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi has a distinctive pattern of growth. Newly-born cells elongate by primarily inserting peptidoglycan at mid-cell, while in longer cells, additional insertion sites form at the one-quarter and three-quarter positions along the cell length. It is not known how peptidoglycan insertion is concentrated at these locations in B. burgdorferi. In other bacteria, multi-protein complexes are known to synthesize new peptidoglycan and are often organized by cytoskeletal proteins. We show here that B. burgdorferi's zonal concentration of peptidoglycan insertion requires BB0538 (BbbA) and BB0245 (BbbB), two members of the bactofilin class of cytoskeletal proteins. Bactofilin depletion redistributes peptidoglycan insertion along the cell

SUBMITTER: Zinck CB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12027072 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature