Zieske K, Chwastek G, Schwille P. Protein Patterns and Oscillations on Lipid Monolayers and in Microdroplets.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2016;
55:13455-13459. [PMID:
27465495 PMCID:
PMC5113663 DOI:
10.1002/anie.201606069]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2016] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
The Min proteins from E.coli position the bacterial cell-division machinery through pole-to-pole oscillations. In vitro, Min protein self-organization can be reconstituted in the presence of a lipid membrane as a catalytic surface. However, Min dynamics have so far not been reconstituted in fully membrane-enclosed volumes. Microdroplets interfaced by lipid monolayers were employed as a simple 3D mimic of cellular compartments to reconstitute Min protein oscillations. We demonstrate that lipid monolayers are sufficient to fulfil the catalytic role of the membrane and thus represent a facile platform to investigate Min protein regulated dynamics of the cell-division protein FtsZ-mts. In particular, we show that droplet containers reveal distinct Min oscillation modes, and reveal a dependence of FtsZ-mts structures on compartment size. Finally, co-reconstitution of Min proteins and FtsZ-mts in droplets yields antagonistic localization, thus demonstrating that droplets indeed support the analysis of complex bacterial self-organization in confined volumes.
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