Dissecting the role of an uncharacterised cell-cycle regulated protein during developmental regulation in Caulobacter

Abstract

The proper progression of cell cycle, in all cell types, majorly relies on precise maintenance of the abundance, and activity, of key regulatory proteins. For example, in the bacterial model, Caulobacter crescentus, cell cycle progression in-part depends on turn-over in levels of key regulatory proteins such as the master cell cycle regulator, CtrA, and the early S-phase regulator, TacA. The activity of the highly conserved protease ClpXP ensures the removal of CtrA and TacA co-incident with the G1 to S transition and early-S-phase, respectively. As like CtrA and TacA, the abundance of ctpA, a conserved protein among alphaproteobacteria, is also known to be regulated at the level of abundance by ClpXP during cell cycle. However, the exact function that ctpA implements during development in Caulobacter remains unknown. Interestingly, deletion or overexpression of ctpA does not a↵ect the cell cycle or development in Caulobacter suggesting that activity of ctpA might be regulated through another protein or there might exist a redundant mechanism that might help the cells to overcome the absence of ctpA. This study is focused towards (i) identifying the genetically interacting partner of ctpA and (ii) designing tools that may help us decipher the function of ctpA, and any co-regulator(s), in bacteria.