Evolved sequence features within the intrinsically disordered tail influence FtsZ assembly and bacterial cell division

Megan C. Cohan; Ammon E. Posey; Steven J. Grigsby; Anuradha Mittal; Alex S. Holehouse; Paul J. Buske; Petra A. Levin; Rohit V. Pappu

The higher L/R ratio for CTLV1 is likely due to lowered cellular levels ( Figure 3A ). The in vivo behavior we observe for cells expressing CTLV5 and CTLV6 cannot be explained in terms of reduced protein levels alone ( Figure 3B) . Therefore, as an additional measure of cell division efficiency we monitored the rate of change of optical density at 600 nm (OD 600 ), which is proportional to the concentration of cells in mid-log phase of growth. A reduction in OD 600 would arise from the combination of a decrease in the efficiency of cell division, compromised metabolism, and increased cell death. As shown in Figure 3E , cells expressing CTLV5 and CTLV6 show a reduction in the rate of increase of OD 600 , indicating that CTLV5 and CTLV6 cause a significant reduction of the cellular growth rate. In contrast, cells expressing all other All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.