Evidence map›Paper›PMID 20856929›Full record

ArticlePloS one2010

In vivo structure of the E. coli FtsZ-ring revealed by photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM).

Guo Fu, Tao Huang, Jackson Buss, Carla Coltharp, Zach Hensel, Jie Xiao

Open access · goldAbstract readEvaluation Study
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 144 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
144citing papers in PubMed
32.7field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

144 citing papers in PubMed, 275 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. FtsZ-mediated spatial-temporal control over septal cell wall synthesis.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Review
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Building the Bacterial Divisome at the Septum.Sub-cellular biochemistry · 2024
    Review
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Connecting sequence features within the disordered C-terminal linker ofProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022
    Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Review
  16. Article
  17. Measurement of Protein Mobility inFrontiers in microbiology · 2021
    Article
  18. Single-molecule localization microscopy.Nature reviews. Methods primers · 2021
    Article
  19. Review
  20. Review

84 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Guo FuDepartment of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America.
Tao Huang
Jackson Buss
Carla Coltharp
Zach Hensel
Jie Xiao
Johns Hopkins University · USJohns Hopkins Medicine · US

Funding

Probing the structure, dynamics and function of the E. coli divisomeR01GM086447 · NIGMS · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · PI XIAO, JIE · 2011 to 2019
$3.8M
NIGMS NIH HHS R01 GM086447
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The FtsZ protein, a tubulin-like GTPase, plays a pivotal role in prokaryotic cell division. In vivo it localizes to the midcell and assembles into a ring-like structure-the Z-ring. The Z-ring serves as an essential scaffold to recruit all other division proteins and generates contractile force for cytokinesis, but its supramolecular structure remains unknown. Electron microscopy (EM) has been unsuccessful in detecting the Z-ring due to the dense cytoplasm of bacterial cells, and conventional fluorescence light microscopy (FLM) has only provided images with limited spatial resolution (200-300 nm) due to the diffraction of light. Hence, given the small sizes of bacteria cells, identifying the in vivo structure of the Z-ring presents a substantial challenge. Here, we used photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM), a single molecule-based super-resolution imaging technique, to characterize the in vivo structure of the Z-ring in E. coli. We achieved a spatial resolution of ∼35 nm and discovered that in addition to the expected ring-like conformation, the Z-ring of E. coli adopts a novel compressed helical conformation with variable helical length and pitch. We measured the thickness of the Z-ring to be ∼110 nm and the packing density of FtsZ molecules inside the Z-ring to be greater than what is expected for a single-layered flat ribbon configuration. Our results strongly suggest that the Z-ring is composed of a loose bundle of FtsZ protofilaments that randomly overlap with each other in both longitudinal and radial directions of the cell. Our results provide significant insight into the spatial organization of the Z-ring and open the door for further investigations of structure-function relationships and cell cycle-dependent regulation of the Z-ring.

Indexed as

Bacterial ProteinsCytoskeletal ProteinsEscherichia coliMicroscopy, FluorescenceProtein ConformationProtein Structure, SecondaryBacterial ProteinsCytoskeletal ProteinsFtsZ protein, Bacteria

Identifiers

PMID20856929
PMCPMC2938336
OpenAlexW2016675469

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.