Influences of capsule on cell shape and chain formation of wild-type and pcsB mutants of serotype 2 Streptococcus pneumoniae.

ABSTRACT: PcsB is a protein of unknown function that plays a critical role in cell division in Streptococcus pneumoniae and other ovococcus species of Streptococcus. We constructed isogenic sets of mutants expressing different amounts of PcsB in laboratory strain R6 and virulent serotype 2 strain D39 to evaluate its cellular roles. Insertion mutagenesis in parent and pcsB(+) merodiploid strains indicated that pcsB is essential in serotype 2 S. pneumoniae. Quantitative Western blotting of wild-type and epitope-tagged PcsB showed that all PcsB was processed into cell-associated and secreted forms of the same molecular mass and that cell-associated PcsB was moderately abundant and present at approximately 4,900 monomers per cell. Controlled expression and complementation experiments indicated that ther

SUBMITTER: Barendt SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2681789 | biostudies-literature | 2009 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature