Analysis of Required Proteins for Engulfment during Bacillus subtilis Sporulation

描述（申请人提供）：吞噬样吞噬过程是枯草芽孢杆菌产孢途径的关键步骤，为研究细菌细胞如何移动大分子、定位蛋白质和催化膜裂变提供了理想的系统。在细菌内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，从两个并排的细胞到一个内孢子，其中一个细胞位于另一个细胞的细胞质中。吞噬为理解细胞壁水解酶如何在空间和时间上受到调节，以及它们如何促进这一动态过程提供了一个理想的系统。目前的数据表明，DMP蛋白是膜迁移和隔膜变薄所必需的，并证明SpollD和spolp水解肽聚糖。该应用程序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联系起来。另一个是识别和表征额外的吞噬蛋白，其参与吞噬可能被两个确定的吞噬模块（DMP和Q-AH）所赋予的强大吞噬所掩盖。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基因表达异常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常见土壤细菌枯草芽孢杆菌以及其他芽孢杆菌（如致病性炭疽芽孢杆菌）孢子形成的了解。

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.