ArticleMolecular microbiology2011
BacM, an N-terminally processed bactofilin of Myxococcus xanthus, is crucial for proper cell shape.
Article in Molecular microbiology, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.
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Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 70 citations in OpenAlex.
- Bactofilins are essential spatial organizers of peptidoglycan insertion in the Lyme disease spirocheteJournal of bacteriology · 2026Article
- Secretins of type-two secretion systems are necessary for exopolymeric slime secretion in cyanobacteria and myxobacteria.Nature communications · 2025Article
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- Polymerization and flanking domains of the bactofilin BacA collectively regulate stalk formation in Asticcacaulis biprosthecum.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
- Functional specialization of the subdomains of a bactofilin driving stalk morphogenesis inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Halofilins as emerging bactofilin families of archaeal cell shape plasticity orchestrators.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- A dynamic bactofilin cytoskeleton cooperates with an M23 endopeptidase to control bacterial morphogenesis.eLife · 2024Article
- VirB, a key transcriptional regulator ofmBio · 2023Article
- The Unique N-Terminal Domain of Chlamydial Bactofilin Mediates Its Membrane Localization and Ring-Forming Properties.Journal of bacteriology · 2023Article
- VirB, a key transcriptional regulator ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Interacting bactofilins impact cell shape of the MreB-less multicellular Rhodomicrobium vannielii.PLoS genetics · 2023Article
- Distinct regions ofeLife · 2022Article
- Strain-dependent motility defects and suppression by a flhO mutation for B. subtilis bactofilins.BMC research notes · 2022Article
- Insights Into the Helical Shape Complex ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Catching a Walker in the Act-DNA Partitioning by ParA Family of Proteins.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Review
- A Dynamic, Ring-Forming Bactofilin Critical for Maintaining Cell Size in the Obligate Intracellular Bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis.Infection and immunity · 2021Article
- Identification and characterization of novel filament-forming proteins in cyanobacteria.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- The structure of bactofilin filaments reveals their mode of membrane binding and lack of polarity.Nature microbiology · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Bactofilins are fibre-forming bacterial cytoskeletal proteins. Here, we report the structural and biochemical characterization of MXAN_7475 (BacM), one of the four bactofilins of Myxococcus xanthus. Absence of BacM leads to a characteristic 'crooked' cell morphology and an increased sensitivity to antibiotics targeting cell wall biosynthesis. The absence of the other three bactofilins MXAN_4637-4635 (BacN-P) has no obvious phenotype. In M. xanthus, BacM exists as a 150-amino-acid full-length version and as a version cleaved before Ser28. In the cell, native BacM forms 3 nm wide fibres, which assemble into bundles forming helix-like cytoplasmic cables throughout the cell, and in a subset of cells additionally a polarly arranged lateral rod-like structure. Isolated fibres consist almost completely of the N-terminally truncated version, suggesting that the proteolytic cleavage occurs before or during fibre formation. Fusion of BacM to mCherry perturbs BacM function and cellular fibre arrangement, resulting for example in the formation of one prominent polar corkscrew-like structure per cell. Immunofluorescence staining of BacM and MreB shows that their cellular distributions are not matching. Taken together, these data suggest that rod-shaped bacteria like M. xanthus use bactofilin fibres to achieve and maintain their characteristic cell morphology and cell wall stability.
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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.