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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 6: Poster I
BP 6.67: Poster
Monday, April 1, 2019, 17:30–19:30, Poster B2
Super-resolution microscopy of the bacterial cell wall synthesis machinery — •Julian Roth and Alexander Rohrbach — Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg, Deutschland
We constructed a total-internal-reflection fluoresecence structured illumination microscope (TIRF-SIM) with 10Hz frame rate, which enables us to gain a better view on the cell wall synthesis of the bacterium Bacillus subtilis, since it is still unclear how bacteria build, maintain and expand their cell wall. The actin-like, cytoskeletal protein MreB is an essential component of the bacterial cell-shape generation system. MreB filaments are thought to mechanically couple several synthesis motors that putatively synthesize the cell wall, whereas the filaments* traces mirror the trajectories of the motors. The cell wall synthesis machinery proteins, RodA and PbPH, are closely associated with MreB : PbPH is hypothesized to be the synthesis motor driving the MreB filaments, while there are indicators that RodA provides the motor with new cell wall material. By imaging these proteins with TIRF-SIM under different chemical and mechanical conditions, we are able to extract new information via trajectories providing propagation velocities as well as interaction processes and correlated population behavior at high resolution. This information is utilized to set-up an improved mechanistic model supported by simulations investigating the coupled work of possessive motors.