Phospho-signal flow from a pole-localized microdomain spatially patterns transcription factor activity

Abstract

Selective recruitment and concentration of signaling proteins within membrane-less compartments is a ubiquitous mechanism for subcellular organization. However, little is known about how such dynamic recruitment patterns intracellular signaling and cellular development. Here, we combined transcriptional profiling, reaction-diffusion modeling, and single-molecule tracking to study signal exchange in and out of a microdomain at the cell pole of the asymmetrically dividing bacterium Caulobacter crescentus. Our study revealed that the microdomain is selectively permeable, and that each protein in the signaling pathway that activates the cell fate transcription factor CtrA is sequestered and uniformly concentrated within the microdomain or its proximal membrane. Restricted rates of entry into and escape from the microdomain enhance phospho-signaling, leading to a sublinear gradient of CtrA~P along the long axis of the cell. The spatial patterning of CtrA~P creates a gradient of transcriptional activation that serves to prime asymmetric development of the two daughter cells.