When grown under high magnesium conditions, BAY 57-1293 a majority of dynA mreB double mutant cells showed a synthetic cell shape as well as division defect. A large fraction of cells was round or club-shaped, which was not observed for single mutant cells (Figure 4C). A second (smaller) fraction of cells was highly elongated (> 15 μm length), and many of these cells showed an irregular cell diameter along the length of the filaments (Figure

4D). In contrast to dynA floT double mutant cells, dynA mreB double mutants did not show membrane-abnormalities, indicating that these occur specifically due to the loss of dynamin and flotillin-like proteins, and not to a general alteration of cell morphology. Many dynA mreB double mutant cells contained decondensed chromosomes, but also contained segregated nucleoids, between which no septum was detectable, in spite of the excessive length of the cells (Figure 4D). In total, more than 90% of all double mutant BMS-777607 chemical structure cells showed a cell shape defect, while only 18% of the mreB single mutant cells showed a clear change in cell morphology (280 cells analysed). Therefore, DynA also plays a role in cell shape maintenance that is exacerbated by the loss

of MreB. To find out if DynA may have an effect in the formation of MreB filaments, as it has on the formation of the FtsZ ZD1839 in vivo ring, we visualized YFP-MreB in dynA mutant cells. Indistinguishably from wild type cells, YFP-MreB formed filamentous structures

in mutant cells, which showed wild type-like remodeling (data not shown), showing that DynA itself does not directly affect the MreB cytoskeleton. Self assembly of DynA and of FloT at the membrane in a heterologous cell system We wished to obtain information on the intrinsic properties of DynA, and therefore expressed the YFP fusion protein in Schneider S2 cells. These cells from Drosophila flies are highly diverged from the bacterial system, and because DynA displays less than 20% sequence identity with dynamin, it is highly unlikely that DynA has any specific interactors in S2 cells, or interacts with dynamin itself. Early after transfection, DynA-YFP assembled at internal membrane systems as well as underneath the cell membrane, suggesting that it has intrinsic membrane affinity (Figure 6A). After extended expression (6 hours and longer), DynA formed network-like structures at the cell membrane (note that membrane staining does not clearly show the outline of the membrane due to a high internal background, see Figure 6D). These structures resembled tubulated membrane structures, which extended away from the cells (Figure 6B).