The Role of CcrZ Protein of Streptococcus pneumoniae in Cell Cycle Regulation
SHEN Chongjie#, WANG Xiaojie#, FAN Lifei, Morigen*
To maintain genomic stability, cells not only need to regulate cell cycle events (DNA replication, DNA segregation, and cell division) during proliferation respectively, they also need to coordinate these events with each other. In bacteria, DNA replication initiation and cell division are responsible for the replication initiation protein DnaA and the cell division divisome protein FtsZ, respectively. However, the mechanism of coordination of these two processes is rarely reported. A cell cycle spatiotemporal regulator CcrZ was recently discovered in Streptococcus pneumoniae, which has three functions: (1) CcrZ activates DnaA-dependent replication initiation; (2) CcrZ participates in the late-stage assembly of cell divisome; (3) CcrZ coordinates DNA replication and cell division by positioning the Z-ring at the midcell. Based on the structure and conservation of CcrZ, this paper reviews the mechanisms of various proteins represented by CcrZ in regulating DNA replication initiation, Z-ring assembly and Z-ring localization. It also prospects the application of coordinators of multipe cell cycle events in related fields.
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