A Dynamic, Ring-Forming Bactofilin Critical for Maintaining Cell Size in the Obligate Intracellular Bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis.

ABSTRACT: Bactofilins are polymer-forming cytoskeletal proteins that are widely conserved in bacteria. Members of this protein family have diverse functional roles such as orienting subcellular molecular processes, establishing cell polarity, and aiding in cell shape maintenance. Using sequence alignment to the conserved bactofilin domain, we identified a bactofilin ortholog, BacA_CT, in the obligate intracellular pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis. Chlamydia species are obligate intracellular bacteria that undergo a developmental cycle alternating between infectious nondividing elementary bodies (EBs) and noninfectious dividing reticulate bodies (RBs). As Chlamydia divides by a polarized division process, we hypothesized that BacA_CT may function to establish polarity in these uniqu

SUBMITTER: Brockett MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8281209 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature