Spatiotemporal regulation of cell division and cell pole development during differentiation of Vibrio parahaemolyticus

• Applicant: Dr. Simon Ringgaard
• Subject Area: Metabolism, Biochemistry and Genetics of Microorganisms ; Developmental Biology ; Cell Biology
• Term: from 2017 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 319450093

Bacteria need to ensure proper inheritance of genetic information and macromolecular structures such as chemosensory arrays upon cell division. Failure to do so can result in reduced fitness or even cell death. Thus, bacteria have evolved mechanisms to ensure such proper inheritance, e.g. by specifically regulating that cell division only occurs at specific sites or by localizing protein complexes at the cell poles. These processes need to be particularly tightly regulated in differentiating bacteria where changes between different cell morphologies increases the complexity. Certain bacteria, like Vibrio parahaemolyticus, differentiate upon contact with solid surfaces from short polarly flagellated swimmer cells to highly filamentous peritrichously flagellated swarmer cells. It remains an open question how these bacteria regulate cell pole development and cell division during differentiation. Particularly, the processes that direct differentiation, regulate cell division during swarmer cell morphogenesis, and regulate cell division during the swarmer cell cycle are unknown and uncharacterized. Accordingly, using V. parahaemolyticus as model organism, the main focus of the work proposed here is to analyze how bacteria regulate their spatiotemporal organization and cell division during cell differentiation. Specifically, we aim to study the molecular mechanism underlying how the ParA-like protein ParC regulates cell pole development, how it ensures correct inheritance and distribution of large macromolecular complexes, and how cell division in general proceeds during differentiation. Taken together, this work will result in an in-depth understanding of how bacteria coordinate cell division, and intracellular organization throughout the cell cycle and during cellular differentiation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants