The essential cell division protein FtsN contains a critical disulfide bond in a non-essential domain

Disulfide bonds are found in many proteins associated with the cell wall of Escherichia coli, and for some of these proteins the disulfide bond is critical to their stability and function. One protein found to contain a disulfide bond is the essential cell division protein FtsN, but the importance of this bond to the protein's structural integrity is unclear. While it evidently plays a role in the proper folding of the SPOR domain of FtsN, this domain is non-essential, suggesting that the disulfide bond might also be dispensable. However, we find that FtsN mutants lacking cysteines give rise to filamentous growth. Furthermore, FtsN protein levels in strains expressing these mutants were significantly lower than in a strain expressing the wild-type allele, as were FtsN levels in strains incapable of making disulfide bonds (dsb^- ) exposed to anaerobic conditions. These results strongly suggest that FtsN lacking a disulfide bond is unstable, thereby making this disulfide critical for function. We have previously found that dsb^- strains fail to grow anaerobically, and the results presented here suggest that this growth defect may be due in part to misfolded FtsN. Thus, proper cell division in E. coli is dependent upon disulfide bond formation.