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Journal of Bacteriology, May 1999, p. 3201-3211, Vol. 181, No. 10
0021-9193/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Septal Localization of Penicillin-Binding Protein 1 in Bacillus subtilis

Lotte B. Pedersen,1 Esther R. Angert,2 and Peter Setlow1,*

Department of Biochemistry, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut 06032,1 and Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, The Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 021382

Received 30 November 1998/Accepted 26 February 1999

Previous studies have shown that Bacillus subtilis cells lacking penicillin-binding protein 1 (PBP1), encoded by ponA, have a reduced growth rate in a variety of growth media and are longer, thinner, and more bent than wild-type cells. It was also recently shown that cells lacking PBP1 require increased levels of divalent cations for growth and are either unable to grow or grow as filaments in media low in Mg2+, suggesting a possible involvement of PBP1 in septum formation under these conditions. Using epitope-tagging and immunofluorescence microscopy, we have now shown that PBP1 is localized at division sites in vegetative cells of B. subtilis. In addition, we have used fluorescence and electron microscopy to show that growing ponA mutant cells display a significant septation defect, and finally by immunofluorescence microscopy we have found that while FtsZ localizes normally in most ponA mutant cells, a significant proportion of ponA mutant cells display FtsZ rings with aberrant structure or improper localization, suggesting that lack of PBP1 affects FtsZ ring stability or assembly. These results provide strong evidence that PBP1 is localized to and has an important function in the division septum in B. subtilis. This is the first example of a high-molecular-weight class A PBP that is localized to the bacterial division septum.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biochemistry, University of Connecticut Health Center, 263 Farmington Ave., Farmington, CT 06032. Phone: (860) 679-2607. Fax: (860) 679-3408. E-mail: setlow{at}sun.uchc.edu.

Journal of Bacteriology, May 1999, p. 3201-3211, Vol. 181, No. 10
0021-9193/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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