Abstract
Spatial periodic signal for cell differentiation in some multicellular organisms is generated according to Turing’s principle for pattern formation. How a dividing cell responds to the signal of differentiation is addressed with the filamentous cyanobacterium Nostoc sp. PCC 7120, which forms the patterned distribution of heterocysts. We show that differentiation of a dividing cell was delayed until its division was completed and only one daughter cell became heterocyst. A mutant of patU3, which encodes an inhibitor of heterocyst formation, showed no such delay and formed heterocyst pairs from the daughter cells of cell division or dumbbell-shaped heterocysts from the cells undergoing cytokinesis. The patA mutant, which forms heterocysts only at the filament ends, restored intercalary heterocysts by a single nucleotide mutation of patU3, and double mutants of patU3/patA and patU3/hetF had the phenotypes of the patU3 mutant. We provide evidence that HetF, which can degrade PatU3, is recruited to cell divisome through its C-terminal domain. A HetF mutant with its N-terminal peptidase domain but lacking the C-terminal domain could not prevent the formation of heterocyst pairs, suggesting that the divisome recruitment of HetF is needed to sequester HetF for the delay of differentiation in dividing cells. Our study demonstrates that PatU3 plays a key role in cell-division coupled control of differentiation.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32070203), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFA0503703), National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFA0904700, 2021YFA0910700, 2021YFA0909700), and Qidong-SLS Innovation Fund (202001539). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication. We would like thank Hong-Xia Lv for technical assistance in time-lapse recording; W. Shen for assistance in protein sequencing; Dr. Ying-Chun Hu, Peng-Yuan Dong, Yun-Chao Xie for their professional assistance in EM sample preparation at the Core Facilities of School of Life Sciences, Peking University; Dr. Dong Liu, Dr. Qi Zhang, Xin-dan Qiu for assistance with MS and Dr. Gui-Lan Li for help with protein purification at the National Center for Protein Sciences at Peking University.
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PatU3 plays a central role in coordinating cell division and differentiation in pattern formation of filamentous cyanobacterium Nostoc sp. PCC 7120
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Yin, L., Zheng, Z., Li, Y. et al. PatU3 plays a central role in coordinating cell division and differentiation in pattern formation of filamentous cyanobacterium Nostoc sp. PCC 7120. Sci. China Life Sci. 66, 2896–2909 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-023-2380-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-023-2380-1