Intermediate Filaments Supporting Cell Shape and Growth in Bacteria

Sub-cellular Biochemistry
Gabriella H Kelemen

Abstract

For years intermediate filaments (IF), belonging to the third class of filamentous cytoskeletal proteins alongside microtubules and actin filaments, were thought to be exclusive to metazoan cells. Structurally these eukaryote IFs are very well defined, consisting of globular head and tail domains, which flank the central rod-domain. This central domain is dominated by an α-helical secondary structure predisposed to form the characteristic coiled-coil, parallel homo-dimer. These elementary dimers can further associate, both laterally and longitudinally, generating a variety of filament-networks built from filaments in the range of 10 nm in diameter. The general role of these filaments with their characteristic mechano-elastic properties both in the cytoplasm and in the nucleus of eukaryote cells is to provide mechanical strength and a scaffold supporting diverse shapes and cellular functions.Since 2003, after the first bacterial IF-like protein, crescentin was identified, it has been evident that bacteria also employ filamentous networks, other than those built from bacterial tubulin or actin homologues, in order to support their cell shape, growth and, in some cases, division. Intriguingly, compared to their eukaryote counterpa...Continue Reading

Citations

Nov 29, 2017·Frontiers in Microbiology·Jan BobekMatouš Čihák
Jan 23, 2018·Nature Reviews. Microbiology·James Wagstaff, Jan Löwe
Jun 28, 2019·Life Science Alliance·Ala JavadiLinda Sandblad
Feb 7, 2020·Scientific Reports·Benjamin L SpringsteinKarina Stucken

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