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DivIVA Is Required for Polar Growth in the MreB-Lacking Rod-Shaped Actinomycete Corynebacterium glutamicum ^,

Departamento de Biología Molecular, Área de Microbiología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de León, León 24071, Spain,¹ Departamento de Biología Molecular, Área de Biología Celular, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de León, León 24071, Spain,² Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Texas Medical School, 6431 Fannin, Houston, Texas 77030,³ Department of Cell and Organism Biology, Lund University, 22362 Lund, Sweden⁴

Received 13 December 2007/ Accepted 12 February 2008

The actinomycete Corynebacterium glutamicum grows as rod-shaped cells by zonal peptidoglycan synthesis at the cell poles. In this bacterium, experimental depletion of the polar DivIVA protein (DivIVA_Cg) resulted in the inhibition of polar growth; consequently, these cells exhibited a coccoid morphology. This result demonstrated that DivIVA is required for cell elongation and the acquisition of a rod shape. DivIVA from Streptomyces or Mycobacterium localized to the cell poles of DivIVA_Cg-depleted C. glutamicum and restored polar peptidoglycan synthesis, in contrast to DivIVA proteins from Bacillus subtilis or Streptococcus pneumoniae, which localized at the septum of C. glutamicum. This confirmed that DivIVAs from actinomycetes are involved in polarized cell growth. DivIVA_Cg localized at the septum after cell wall synthesis had started and the nucleoids had already segregated, suggesting that in C. glutamicum DivIVA is not involved in cell division or chromosome segregation.

Published ahead of print on 22 February 2008.

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