Food Science and Technology Department
Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications
ORCID IDs
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
10-2003
Citation
Molecular Microbiology (2004) 51(3): 609–618
doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2958.2003.03864.x
Abstract
An understanding of the involvement of bacterial cytoplasmic filaments in cell division requires the elucidation of the structural organization of those filamentous structures. Treponemal cytoplasmic filaments are composed of one protein, CfpA, and have been demonstrated to be involved in cell division. In this study, we used electron tomography to show that the filaments are part of a complex with a novel molecular organization that includes at least two distinct features decorating the filaments. One set of components appears to anchor the filaments to the cytoplasmic membrane. The other set of components appears to bridge the cytoplasmic filaments on the cytoplasmic side, and to be involved in the interfilament spacing within the cell. The filaments occupy between 3% and 18% of the inner surface of the cytoplasmic membrane. These results reveal a novel filamentous molecular organization of independent filaments linked by bridges and continuously anchored to the membrane.
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