Myxococcus xanthus is a soil bacterium with a complex life cycle involving distinct cell fates, including production of environmentally resistant spores to withstand periods of nutrient limitation. Spores are surrounded by an apparently self-assembling cuticula containing at least Proteins S and C; the gene encoding Protein C is unknown. During analyses of cell heterogeneity in M. xanthus, we observed that Protein C accumulated exclusively in cells found in aggregates. Using mass spectrometry analysis of Protein C either isolated from spore cuticula or immunoprecipitated from aggregated cells, we demonstrate that Protein C is actually a proteolytic fragment of the previously identified but functionally elusive zinc metalloprotease, FibA. Subpopulation specific FibA accumulation is not due to transcriptional regulation suggesting post-transcriptional regulation mechanisms mediate its heterogeneous accumulation patterns. © 2011 Lee et al.
CITATION STYLE
Lee, B., Mann, P., Grover, V., Treuner-Lange, A., Kahnt, J., & Higgs, P. I. (2011). The Myxococcus xanthus spore cuticula protein C is a fragment of FibA, an extracellular metalloprotease produced exclusively in aggregated cells. PLoS ONE, 6(12). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0028968
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