Research

La división bacteriana es un proceso celular esencial estrechamente regulado por el complejo de membrana FtsEX. La estructura del supercomplejo FtsEX:EnvC:AmiB proporciona información fundamental sobre este proceso.

The bacterial division is an essential cellular process that involves the formation of a septum made of peptidoglycan. The septum is initially shared between daughters and must be processed to complete division. Septal splitting has long been known to be mediated by enzymes called amidases that are controlled by an activator protein and the ABC-transporter- like complex called FtsEX. However, the mechanism of amidase regulation by this system has remained unclear. In a collaborative effort with the groups of Luo Min and Chris Sam (Univ. Singapore), Thomas Bernhardt (Harvard Univ.) and Juan A. Hermoso (IQF-CSIC), we report the structure of FtsEX in complex with an amidase and amidase activator, revealing how ATP binding to the complex promotes amidase activation and providing structural information that may help target the activation mechanism for the development of cell lysis-inducing antibiotics. The work has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2301897120 ).