Biology subjects

Ramijan, K.

Publications and source records attributed to Ramijan, K..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2020

A novel and conserved cell wall enzyme that can substitute for the Lipid II synthase MurG

The cell wall is a stress-bearing structure and a unifying trait in bacteria. Without exception, synthesis of the cell wall involves formation of the precursor molecule Lipid II by the activity of the essential biosynthetic enzyme MurG, which is encoded in the division and cell wall synthesis (dcw) gene cluster. Here we present the discovery of a novel cell wall enzyme that can substitute for MurG. A mutant of Kitasatospora viridifaciens lacking a significant part of the dcw cluster including murG surprisingly produced Lipid II and wild-type peptidoglycan. Genomic analysis identified a distant murG paralogue, which encodes a putative enzyme that shares only around 31% aa sequence identity with MurG. We show that this enzyme can replace the canonical MurG, and we therefore designated it MurG2. Orthologues of murG2 are present in 38% of all genomes of Kitasatosporae and members of the sister genus Streptomyces. CRISPRi experiments showed that K. viridifaciens murG2 can also functionally replace murG in Streptomyces coelicolor, thus validating its bioactivity and demonstrating that it is active in multiple genera. Altogether, these results identify MurG2 as a bona fide Lipid II synthase, thus demonstrating plasticity in cell wall synthesis.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2019

Genome rearrangements and megaplasmid loss in the filamentous bacterium Kitasatospora viridifaciens are associated with protoplast formation and regeneration

Filamentous Actinobacteria are multicellular bacteria with linear replicons. Kitasatospora viridifaciens DSM 40239 contains a linear 7.8 Mb chromosome and an autonomously replicating plasmid KVP1 of 1.7 Mb. Here we show that lysozyme-induced protoplast formation of the multinucleated mycelium of K. viridifaciens drives morphological diversity. Characterization and sequencing of an individual revertant colony that had lost the ability to differentiate revealed that the strain had not only lost most of KVP1 but also carried lesions in the right arm of the chromosome. Strikingly, the lesion sites were preceded by insertion sequence elements, suggesting that the rearrangements may have been caused by replicative transposition and homologous recombination between both replicons. These data indicate that protoplast formation is a stressful process that can lead to profound genetic changes.\n\nRepositoriesGenomic sequence data for strain B3.1 has been deposited in the NCBI SRA database under accession code SAMN11514356.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2016

Reversible metamorphosis in a bacterium

The cell wall is a shape-defining structure that envelopes almost all bacteria. One of its main functions is to serve as a protection barrier to environmental stresses. Bacteria can be forced in a cell wall-deficient state under highly specialized conditions, which are invariably aimed at interrupting cell wall synthesis. Therefore, the relevance of such cells has remained obscure. Here we show that many filamentous actinomycetes have a natural ability to generate a new, cell wall-deficient cell type in response to hyperosmotic stress, which we call S-cells. This wall-deficient state is transient, as S-cells are able to switch to the canonical mycelial mode-of-growth. Remarkably, prolonged exposure of S-cells to hyperosmotic stress yielded variants that are able to proliferate indefinitely without their cell wall. This is the first report that demonstrates the formation of wall-deficient cells as a natural adaptation strategy and their potential transition into stable wall-less forms solely caused by prolonged exposure to osmotic stress. Given that actinomycetes are potent antibiotic producers, our work also provides important insights into how biosynthetic gene clusters and resistance determinants may disseminate into the environment.

microbiology↗