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Tubulin-Like Proteins in Prokaryotic DNA Positioning

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Prokaryotic Cytoskeletons

Part of the book series: Subcellular Biochemistry ((SCBI,volume 84))

Abstract

A family of tubulin-related proteins (TubZs) has been identified in prokaryotes as being important for the inheritance of virulence plasmids of several pathogenic Bacilli and also being implicated in the lysogenic life cycle of several bacteriophages. Cell biological studies and reconstitution experiments revealed that TubZs function as prokaryotic cytomotive filaments, providing one-dimensional motive forces. Plasmid-borne TubZ filaments most likely transport plasmid centromeric complexes by depolymerisation, pulling on the plasmid DNA, in vitro. In contrast, phage-borne TubZ (PhuZ) pushes bacteriophage particles (virions) to mid cell by filament growth. Structural studies by both crystallography and electron cryo-microscopy of multiple proteins, both from the plasmid partitioning sub-group and the bacteriophage virion centring group of TubZ homologues, allow a detailed consideration of the structural phylogeny of the group as a whole, while complete structures of both crystallographic protofilaments at high resolution and fully polymerised filaments at intermediate resolution by cryo-EM have revealed details of the polymerisation behaviour of both TubZ sub-groups.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Structural Studies, Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CB2 0QH, Cambridge, UK

    Gero Fink

  2. Department of Biology, Institute for Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Christopher H. S. Aylett

Authors
  1. Gero Fink
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  2. Christopher H. S. Aylett
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Correspondence to Gero Fink .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Structural Studies Division, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom

    Jan Löwe

  2. Structural Studies Division, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, United Kingdom

    Linda A. Amos

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Fink, G., Aylett, C.H.S. (2017). Tubulin-Like Proteins in Prokaryotic DNA Positioning. In: Löwe, J., Amos, L. (eds) Prokaryotic Cytoskeletons. Subcellular Biochemistry, vol 84. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53047-5_11

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