¡vIVA la DivIVA!

Abstract

Reproduction in the bacterial kingdom predominantly occurs through binary fission-a process in which one parental cell is divided into two similarly sized daughter cells. How cell division, in conjunction with cell elongation and chromosome segregation, is orchestrated by a multitude of proteins has been an active area of research spanning the past few decades. Together, the monumental endeavors of multiple laboratories have identified several cell division and cell shape regulators as well as their underlying regulatory mechanisms in rod-shaped Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis, which serve as model organisms for Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, respectively. Yet our understanding of bacterial cell division and morphology regulation is far from complete, especially in noncanonical and non-rod-shaped organisms. In this review, we focus on two proteins that are highly conserved in Gram-positive organisms, DivIVA and its homolog GpsB, and attempt to summarize the recent advances in this area of research and discuss their various roles in cell division, cell growth, and chromosome segregation in addition to their interactome and posttranslational regulation.

Keywords: DivIVA; EzrA; FtsZ; GpsB; PBP; ParA/ParB; Ser/Thr kinase; cell division; cell shape; cell wall.

FIG 1

Localization of DivIVA and GpsB and the overlapping network of their interaction partners in Gram-positive bacteria. Venn diagrams show the interaction partners of DivIVA (A) and GpsB (B) discussed in this article. (A) (Top panel) Clockwise from the top right, localization patterns of DivIVA in actively dividing cells of B. subtilis, L. monocytogenes, S. aureus, and S. pneumoniae are shown. (Bottom panel) Clockwise from the top, localization patterns of DivIVA in actively growing cells of Streptomyces, Mycobacterium, and Corynebacterium species are depicted. Dashed circles indicate alternate sites of localization. The Streptomyces cell is depicted in an open-ended manner to indicate the mycelial growth pattern. (B) Clockwise from the top right, localization patterns of GpsB in actively dividing cells of B. subtilis, L. monocytogenes, S. aureus, and S. pneumoniae are presented. The subcellular locations of DivIVA and GpsB are illustrated in green. A comprehensive list of DivIVA and GpsB partners and methods used to test interactions, including negative results, is provided in Table S1. *, the specific names of penicillin-binding proteins are shown in Table S1.