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Isolation Of Intragenic Suppressor Mutations Of A Dominant-Negative Ftsz Allele, Carla Ciccone

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Streptomyces coelicolor, a gram-positive bacterium containing division genes that are dispensable for growth and viability. ftsZ encodes the earliest acting cell division protein in prokaryotes. In S. coelicolor a mutation at codon 275 in ftsZ (ftsZ25), changes an alanine to a valine causing a block in division. Using a homology model of the crystal structure of FtsZ, I hypothesized that changing another amino acid having direct interaction with amino acid 275 might restore function. The structure-directed mutation changed a leucine to a valine at codon 259. The double mutation did not restore division to the organism; this change alone also …