Live Imaging of a Hyperthermophilic Archaeon Reveals Distinct Roles for Two ESCRT-III Homologs in Ensuring a Robust and Symmetric Division

Andre Arashiro Pulschen, Delyan R. Mutavchiev, Siân Culley, Kim Nadine Sebastian, Jacques Roubinet, Marc Roubinet, Gabriel Tarrason Risa, Marleen van Wolferen, Chantal Roubinet, Uwe Schmidt, Gautam Dey, Sonja Verena Albers, Ricardo Henriques, Buzz Baum*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Live-cell imaging has revolutionized our understanding of dynamic cellular processes in bacteria and eukaryotes. Although similar techniques have been applied to the study of halophilic archaea [1–5], our ability to explore the cell biology of thermophilic archaea has been limited by the technical challenges of imaging at high temperatures. Sulfolobus are the most intensively studied members of TACK archaea and have well-established molecular genetics [6–9]. Additionally, studies using Sulfolobus were among the first to reveal striking similarities between the cell biology of eukaryotes and archaea [10–15]. However, to date, it has not been possible to image Sulfolobus cells as they grow and divide. Here, we report the construction of the Sulfoscope, a heated chamber on an inverted fluorescent microscope that enables live-cell imaging of thermophiles. By using thermostable fluorescent probes together with this system, we were able to image Sulfolobus acidocaldarius cells live to reveal tight coupling between changes in DNA condensation, segregation, and cell division. Furthermore, by imaging deletion mutants, we observed functional differences between the two ESCRT-III proteins implicated in cytokinesis, CdvB1 and CdvB2. The deletion of cdvB1 compromised cell division, causing occasional division failures, whereas the ΔcdvB2 exhibited a profound loss of division symmetry, generating daughter cells that vary widely in size and eventually generating ghost cells. These data indicate that DNA separation and cytokinesis are coordinated in Sulfolobus, as is the case in eukaryotes, and that two contractile ESCRT-III polymers perform distinct roles to ensure that Sulfolobus cells undergo a robust and symmetrical division.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2852-2859.e4
JournalCurrent Biology
Volume30
Issue number14
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Jul 2020

Keywords

  • archaea
  • cell division
  • DNA segregation
  • ESCRT-III
  • hyperthermophiles
  • live-cell imaging
  • Sulfolobus acidocaldarius
  • thermophiles

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