A team from the Laboratory of Translatomics of the IBB PAS, in collaboration with scientists from the University of Wrocław, have discovered and described for the first time in the literature the spatially and temporally synchronised transport of ribosomes into the prespore of Bacillus subtilis.
A number of morphological changes occur during sporulation in B. subtilis, the most extensively described so far being asymmetric septation and chromosome translocation into the newly formed endospore. The scientific work of the team led by dr hab. Agata Starosta has shown that also the translational machinery, and in particular the ribosomes, show dynamic and synchronised changes in localisation during sporulation.
In the article, the scientists described for the first time the sequential translocation of ribosomes into the forming endospore and the role of the asymmetric septum in the regulation of translation during sporulation. They also discovered that peptidoglycan rearrangement of the asymmetric septum carried out by the SpoIIDMP protein complex plays a key role in the translocation of ribosomes into the forming endospore. The proposed model implies that: (I) ribosomes can be transported to different subcellular locations during development and the cell most likely employs homologs of cytoskeletal proteins for this; (II) the cues for localisation of asymmetric septation may be translational and also based on the sites of ribosome location. At the same time, it was hypothesised that ribosome transport probably takes place through the pore of the asymmetric septum, after loss of focal localisation of the SpoIIIE protein and before synthesis of the endospore peptidoglycan.
This discovery could play a key role in the search for new antibiotic targets in sporulating bacteria.
The findings were published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-55196-9
The work was supported by the Foundation for Polish Science (FIRST TEAM grant) and EMBO (Installation Grant).