Oct 8, 2013 · Bacterial actins constitute a large, diverse family that share the core actin structural fold and are involved in many of the same cellular processes as eukaryotic actin, including cell shape, organelle positioning, and cell division (Fig. 1A,B).

In this review we cover our current understanding of the structure, assembly, function, and regulation of bacterial actins. We focus on ParM as a well-understood reductionist model and on MreB as a central organizer of multiple aspects of bacterial cell biology.

Nov 16, 2016 · Bacterial pathogens have developed effectors that not only manipulate actin filament nucleation and elongation, but also differently affect cellular actin dynamics by hijacking host F-actin capping, bundling, cross-linking, severing, or sequestering proteins.

The actin cytoskeleton and Rho GTPase signaling to actin assembly are prime targets of bacterial and viral pathogens, simply because actin is involved in all motile and membrane remodeling processes, such as phagocytosis, macropinocytosis, endocytosis, exocytosis, vesicular trafficking and membrane fusion events, motility, and last but not ...

Recent advances have shown conclusively that bacterial cells possess distant but true homologues of actin (MreB, ParM, and the recently uncovered MamK protein). Despite weak amino acid sequence similarity, MreB and ParM exhibit high structural homology to actin.

Mar 16, 2015 · In bacteria such as Escherichia coli, homologs of tubulin and actin directly interact with each other and are crucial for coordinating cell growth and division.

Here, we characterize a previously unknown family of bacterial actin homologs, and show that it forms a three-stranded, polar filament. This unusual architecture suggests a distinct mechanism of filament assembly and enhances our understanding of the evolution of actin-like proteins.

Sep 28, 2015 · The actin cytoskeleton and its regulators are a major target of bacterial pathogens, which modulate actin dynamics for invasion or exit of host cells, for inhibition of phagocytosis or for intracellular motility and cell-to-cell spread.

Feb 1, 2006 · Bacteria of the genera Listeria, Rickettsia, Burkholderia, Shigella and Mycobacteria subvert cellular actin dynamics to facilitate their movement within the host cytosol and to infect...

In particular, bacterial pathogens produce and deliver virulence effector proteins that hijack actin dynamics to enable bacterial invasion of host cells, allow movement within the host cytosol, facilitate intercellular spread or block phagocytosis.