Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Journal of Bacteriology logoLink to Journal of Bacteriology
. 1989 Apr;171(4):2090–2095. doi: 10.1128/jb.171.4.2090-2095.1989

The Escherichia coli cell division mutation ftsM1 is in serU.

G Leclerc 1, C Sirard 1, G R Drapeau 1
PMCID: PMC209861  PMID: 2649486

Abstract

The ftsM1 mutation is believed to be in a gene implicated in the regulation of cell division in Escherichia coli because it displayed the lon mutation phenotypes. In this study, we show that this mutation is located in serU, a gene which codes for tRNA(Ser)2, and has the phenotypes of the serU allele supH. Both ftsM1 and supH suppressed the leuB6 and ilvD145 missense mutations, and both conferred temperature and UV light irradiation sensitivity to the harboring cells. Cells which carried the ftsM1 mutation or the supH suppressor had very low colony-forming abilities on salt-free L agar, and this phenotype was almost completely abolished by the presence of plasmids bearing the ftsZ+ gene. Furthermore, sensitivity of the mutant cells to UV irradiation was also markedly diminished when they carried a ftsZ+-bearing plasmid. These results suggest that supH-containing cells have reduced FtsZ activities, in accordance with their displaying the phenotypes of the lon mutant cells. The possibility that ftsM1 (supH) is functionally involved in the biosynthesis of a specific protein which affects cell division is discussed.

Full text

PDF
2090

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bachmann B. J. Linkage map of Escherichia coli K-12, edition 7. Microbiol Rev. 1983 Jun;47(2):180–230. doi: 10.1128/mr.47.2.180-230.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Begg K. J., Hatfull G. F., Donachie W. D. Identification of new genes in a cell envelope-cell division gene cluster of Escherichia coli: cell division gene ftsQ. J Bacteriol. 1980 Oct;144(1):435–437. doi: 10.1128/jb.144.1.435-437.1980. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Belhumeur P., Drapeau G. R. Regulation of cell division in Escherichia coli: properties of new ftsZ mutants. Mol Gen Genet. 1984;197(2):254–260. doi: 10.1007/BF00330971. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Birnboim H. C., Doly J. A rapid alkaline extraction procedure for screening recombinant plasmid DNA. Nucleic Acids Res. 1979 Nov 24;7(6):1513–1523. doi: 10.1093/nar/7.6.1513. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Blank H. U., Söll D. Purification of five leucine transfer ribonucleic acid species from Escherichia coli and their acylation by heterologous leucyl-transfer ribonucleic acid synthetase. J Biol Chem. 1971 Aug 25;246(16):4947–4950. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Descoteaux A., Drapeau G. R. Regulation of cell division in Escherichia coli K-12: probable interactions among proteins FtsQ, FtsA, and FtsZ. J Bacteriol. 1987 May;169(5):1938–1942. doi: 10.1128/jb.169.5.1938-1942.1987. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Drapeau G. R., Chausseau J. P., Gariépy F. Unusual properties of a new division mutant of Escherichia coli. Can J Microbiol. 1983 Jun;29(6):694–699. doi: 10.1139/m83-113. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Drapeau G. R., Gariépy F., Boulé M. Regulation and SOS induction of division inhibition in Escherichia coli K12. Mol Gen Genet. 1984;193(3):453–458. doi: 10.1007/BF00382083. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Eggertsson G., Adelberg E. A. Map positions and specificities of suppressor mutations in Escherichia coli K-12. Genetics. 1965 Aug;52(2):319–340. doi: 10.1093/genetics/52.2.319. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Eggertsson G. Suppressors causing temperature sensitivity of growth in Escherichia coli. Genetics. 1968 Oct;60(2):269–280. doi: 10.1093/genetics/60.2.269. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Garcia G. M., Mar P. K., Mullin D. A., Walker J. R., Prather N. E. The E. coli dnaY gene encodes an arginine transfer RNA. Cell. 1986 May 9;45(3):453–459. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(86)90331-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Guerola N., Ingraham J. L., Cerdá-Olmedo E. Induction of closely linked multiple mutations by nitrosoguanidine. Nat New Biol. 1971 Mar 24;230(12):122–125. doi: 10.1038/newbio230122a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. HOWARD-FLANDERS P., SIMSON E., THERIOT L. A LOCUS THAT CONTROLS FILAMENT FORMATION AND SENSITIVITY TO RADIATION IN ESCHERICHIA COLI K-12. Genetics. 1964 Feb;49:237–246. doi: 10.1093/genetics/49.2.237. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Henson J. M., Chu H., Irwin C. A., Walker J. R. Isolation and characterization of dnaX and dnaY temperature-sensitive mutants of Escherichia coli. Genetics. 1979 Aug;92(4):1041–1059. doi: 10.1093/genetics/92.4.1041. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Huisman O., D'Ari R. An inducible DNA replication-cell division coupling mechanism in E. coli. Nature. 1981 Apr 30;290(5809):797–799. doi: 10.1038/290797a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Huisman O., D'Ari R., Gottesman S. Cell-division control in Escherichia coli: specific induction of the SOS function SfiA protein is sufficient to block septation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Jul;81(14):4490–4494. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.14.4490. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Ikemura T. Correlation between the abundance of Escherichia coli transfer RNAs and the occurrence of the respective codons in its protein genes. J Mol Biol. 1981 Feb 15;146(1):1–21. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(81)90363-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Jones C., Holland I. B. Role of the SulB (FtsZ) protein in division inhibition during the SOS response in Escherichia coli: FtsZ stabilizes the inhibitor SulA in maxicells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Sep;82(18):6045–6049. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.18.6045. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Kohara Y., Akiyama K., Isono K. The physical map of the whole E. coli chromosome: application of a new strategy for rapid analysis and sorting of a large genomic library. Cell. 1987 Jul 31;50(3):495–508. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90503-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Langridge J. Mutation spectra and the neutrality of mutations. Aust J Biol Sci. 1974 Jun;27(3):309–319. doi: 10.1071/bi9740309. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Leinfelder W., Zehelein E., Mandrand-Berthelot M. A., Böck A. Gene for a novel tRNA species that accepts L-serine and cotranslationally inserts selenocysteine. Nature. 1988 Feb 25;331(6158):723–725. doi: 10.1038/331723a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Mandel M., Higa A. Calcium-dependent bacteriophage DNA infection. J Mol Biol. 1970 Oct 14;53(1):159–162. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(70)90051-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Mizusawa S., Court D., Gottesman S. Transcription of the sulA gene and repression by LexA. J Mol Biol. 1983 Dec 15;171(3):337–343. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(83)90097-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Noël G., Drapeau G. R. Identification of new cell division genes in Escherichia coli by using extragenic suppressors. J Bacteriol. 1986 Feb;165(2):399–404. doi: 10.1128/jb.165.2.399-404.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Phoenix P., Drapeau G. R. Cell division control in Escherichia coli K-12: some properties of the ftsZ84 mutation and suppression of this mutation by the product of a newly identified gene. J Bacteriol. 1988 Sep;170(9):4338–4342. doi: 10.1128/jb.170.9.4338-4342.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Pielak G. J., Mauk A. G., Smith M. Site-directed mutagenesis of cytochrome c shows that an invariant Phe is not essential for function. Nature. 1985 Jan 10;313(5998):152–154. doi: 10.1038/313152a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Stoker N. G., Fairweather N. F., Spratt B. G. Versatile low-copy-number plasmid vectors for cloning in Escherichia coli. Gene. 1982 Jun;18(3):335–341. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(82)90172-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Söll D. Studies on polynucleotides. LXXXV. Partial purification of an amber supressor tRNA and studies on in vitro suppression. J Mol Biol. 1968 May 28;34(1):175–187. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(68)90243-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Tamura F., Nishimura S., Ohki M. The E. coli divE mutation, which differentially inhibits synthesis of certain proteins, is in tRNASer1. EMBO J. 1984 May;3(5):1103–1107. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1984.tb01936.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Thorbjarnardóttir S., Uemura H., Dingermann T., Rafnar T., Thorsteinsdóttir S., Söll D., Eggertsson G. Escherichia coli supH suppressor: temperature-sensitive missense suppression caused by an anticodon change in tRNASer2. J Bacteriol. 1985 Jan;161(1):207–211. doi: 10.1128/jb.161.1.207-211.1985. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Valenzuela D., Weber H., Weissmann C. Is sequence conservation in interferons due to selection for functional proteins? Nature. 1985 Feb 21;313(6004):698–700. doi: 10.1038/313698a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Walker J. R., Smith J. A. Cell division of the Escherichia coli lon- mutant. Mol Gen Genet. 1970;108(3):249–257. doi: 10.1007/BF00283355. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Yamaizumi Z., Kuchino Y., Harada F., Nishimura S., McCloskey J. A. Primary structure of Escherichia coli tRNA UUR Leu. Presence of an unknown adenosine derivative in the first position of the anticodon which recognizes the UU codon series. J Biol Chem. 1980 Mar 10;255(5):2220–2225. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Bacteriology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES