Mutations in the Lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis pathway interfere with crescentin-mediated cell curvature in Caulobacter crescentus.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial cell morphogenesis requires coordination among multiple cellular systems, including the bacterial cytoskeleton and the cell wall. In the vibrioid bacterium Caulobacter crescentus, the intermediate filament-like protein crescentin forms a cell envelope-associated cytoskeletal structure that controls cell wall growth to generate cell curvature. We undertook a genetic screen to find other cellular components important for cell curvature. Here we report that deletion of a gene (wbqL) involved in the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) biosynthesis pathway abolishes cell curvature. Loss of WbqL function leads to the accumulation of an aberrant O-polysaccharide species and to the release of the S layer in the culture medium. Epistasis and microscopy experiments show that neither S-layer nor O-pol

SUBMITTER: Cabeen MT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2897673 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature