DivIVA-mediated polar localization of ComN, a posttranscriptional regulator of Bacillus subtilis.

ABSTRACT: ComN (YrzD) is a small, 98-amino-acid protein recently shown to be involved in the posttranscriptional control of the late competence comE operon in Bacillus subtilis. We show here that ComN localizes to the division site and cell poles in a DivIVA-dependent fashion. Yeast two-hybrid and glutathione S-transferase pulldown experiments showed that ComN interacts directly with DivIVA. ComN is not essential for the polar assembly of the core competence DNA uptake machinery. Nevertheless, polar localization of ComN should play some role in competence acquisition because delocalization of ComN leads to a small reduction in competence efficiency. We found that ComN promotes the accumulation of its target comE mRNA to septal and polar sites. Thus, we speculate that localized translation of ComE pr

SUBMITTER: dos Santos VT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3393515 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature