Analysis of Required Proteins for Engulfment during Bacillus subtilis Sporulation

描述（由申请人提供）：吞噬的吞噬样过程是枯草芽孢杆菌孢子形成途径中的关键步骤，为研究细菌细胞如何移动大分子、定位蛋白质和催化膜分裂提供了理想的系统。在细菌内生孢子形成的这一关键步骤中，一个细菌细胞吞噬另一个细菌细胞，介导孢子囊的惊人重组，从并排的两个细胞到内生孢子，其中一个细胞位于另一个细胞的细胞质中。吞噬提供了一个理想的系统，了解细胞壁水解酶是如何在空间和时间上进行调节，以及它们如何有助于这一动态过程。目前的数据表明，SpolID和SpolIP水解肽聚糖的蛋白质所需的膜迁移和隔膜变薄，并证明。本申请的关键目标之一是将这些吞噬蛋白的生化活性与它们的各种体内活性相关联。另一个是鉴定和表征额外的吞噬蛋白，其参与吞噬可能被两个鉴定的吞噬模块（EkD和Q-AH）赋予的强吞噬所掩盖。公共卫生相关性：这里提出的研究将增加我们对发展机制的理解。任何生物体的发育生物学研究都可以为揭示人类发育过程中异常基因表达导致的疾病的基础提供重要信息。通过这项研究，我们也将增加我们对孢子形成的理解，不仅是常见的土壤细菌B。枯草芽孢杆菌，但也存在于其它芽孢杆菌属物种中，例如致病性B。炭疽病

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The phagocytosis-like process of engulfment, a critical step in the sporulation pathway of Bacillus subtilis, provides an ideal system to study how bacterial cells move macromolecules, localize proteins and catalyze membrane fission. During this key step in bacterial endospore formation, one bacterial cell engulfs another mediating a striking reorganization of the sporangium, from two cells that lie side by side, to an endospore, in which one cell lies within the cytoplasm of another. Engulfment offers an ideal system for understanding how cell wall hydrolases are spatially and temporally regulated, and how they contribute to this dynamic process. Current data suggest that the DMP proteins are required for both membrane migration and septal thinning, and demonstrate that SpollD and SpollP hydrolyze peptidoglycan. One of the key goals of this application is to correlate the biochemical activities of these engulfment proteins with their various in vivo activities. Another is to identify and characterize additional engulfment proteins whose involvement in engulfment may be masked by the robust engulfment bestowed by the two identified, DMP and Q-AH, engulfment modules. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The research proposed here will increase our understanding on the mechanisms of development. Developmental biological research, in any organism, can provide important information for uncovering the basis of diseases that result from aberrant gene expression during development in humans. Through this study, we will also increase our understanding of sporulation in, not only, the common soil bacterium B. subtilis but also in other Bacillus species, such as the pathogenic B. anthracis.