Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

Professor Neil Fairweather

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences

Emeritus Professor
 
 
 
//

Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 5247n.fairweather

 
 
//

Location

 

1.44Flowers buildingSouth Kensington Campus

//

Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Serrano:2016:10.1111/mmi.13311,
author = {Serrano, M and Crawshaw, AD and Dembek, M and Monteiro, JM and Pereira, FC and Pinho, MG and Fairweather, NF and Salgado, PS and Henriques, AO},
doi = {10.1111/mmi.13311},
journal = {Molecular Microbiology},
pages = {204--228},
title = {The SpoIIQ-SpoIIIAH complex of Clostridium difficile controls forespore engulfment and late stages of gene expression and spore morphogenesis},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/mmi.13311},
volume = {100},
year = {2016}
}
Download

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Engulfment of the forespore by the mother cell is a universal feature of endosporulation. In Bacillus subtilis, the forespore protein SpoIIQ and the mother cell protein SpoIIIAH form a channel, essential for endosporulation, through which the developing spore is nurtured. The two proteins also form a backup system for engulfment. Unlike in B. subtilis, SpoIIQ of Clostridium difficile has intact LytM zinc-binding motifs. We show that spoIIQ or spoIIIAH deletion mutants of C. difficile result in anomalous engulfment, and that disruption of the SpoIIQ LytM domain via a single amino acid substitution (H120S) impairs engulfment differently. SpoIIQ and SpoIIQH120S interact with SpoIIIAH throughout engulfment. SpoIIQ, but not SpoIIQH120S, binds Zn2+, and metal absence alters the SpoIIQ-SpoIIIAH complex in vitro. Possibly, SpoIIQH120S supports normal engulfment in some cells but not a second function of the complex, required following engulfment completion. We show that cells of the spoIIQ or spoIIIAH mutants that complete engulfment are impaired in post-engulfment, forespore and mother cell-specific gene expression, suggesting a channel-like function. Both engulfment and a channel-like function may be ancestral functions of SpoIIQ-SpoIIIAH while the requirement for engulfment was alleviated through the emergence of redundant mechanisms in B. subtilis and related organisms.
AU  - Serrano,M
AU  - Crawshaw,AD
AU  - Dembek,M
AU  - Monteiro,JM
AU  - Pereira,FC
AU  - Pinho,MG
AU  - Fairweather,NF
AU  - Salgado,PS
AU  - Henriques,AO
DO  - 10.1111/mmi.13311
EP  - 228
PY  - 2016///
SN  - 1365-2958
SP  - 204
TI  - The SpoIIQ-SpoIIIAH complex of Clostridium difficile controls forespore engulfment and late stages of gene expression and spore morphogenesis
T2  - Molecular Microbiology
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/mmi.13311
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/38609
VL  - 100
ER  -
Download