For that purpose we fused SpoIIIE to the yellow fluorescent protein YFP and expressed this fusion protein in the 8325-4recUi background, generating the strain BCBRP002 (Figure  4). SpoIIIE-YFP foci

were present in 10% (n = 580) of the cells cultured in the presence of inducer. However, when the same strain was cultured in the absence of IPTG, the number Everolimus supplier of cells with SpoIIIE-YFP foci increased to 44% (n = 536). In a control experiment, addition of IPTG did not change the fraction of cells exhibiting SpoIIIE foci in the control strain BCBHV017, a strain identical to BCBRP002 but lacking the recU mutations (data not shown). These results suggest that RecU is required for correct segregation of the S. aureus chromosome as its absence increases the need for SpoIIIE-mediated post-septational chromosome partitioning. Figure 4 RecU-depleted cells show increased frequency of SpoIIIE-YFP foci. The figure shows SpoIIIE-YFP localization in recU inducible strain BCBRP002 incubated

in the absence (A) or presence (B) of IPTG. SpoIIIE-YFP foci are present in 44% of BCBRP002 RecU-depleted cells in comparison with 10% of the cells of the same strain when expressing RecU. Panels from left to right show phase-contrast image, membrane labeled with FM 5–95, DNA stained with Hoechst 33342, SpoIIIE-YFP localization, and the overlay of the three fluorescence images showing the membrane in www.selleckchem.com/products/c646.html red, DNA in blue and SpoIIIE-YFP in yellow. Scale bars 1 μm. Discussion The role of RecU in homologous recombination and in DNA repair has been well studied in a small number of organisms

[39–41]. However DSB repair mechanisms studied in one bacterial species cannot be directly extrapolated to other species since the phenotypes that arise from the same mutations in different bacteria are not always the same [42]. Furthermore, homologous recombination has an important role in the evolution of antibiotic resistance and acquisition of virulence determinants [15, 16], emphasizing the relevance of studying this mechanism in pathogenic bacteria. We have now studied the role of RecU in the clinical pathogen S. aureus and found that the major phenotypes observed in RecU depleted S. aureus cells were compatible with defects in chromosome segregation and DNA repair. These phenotypes Levetiracetam include: (i) The presence of anucleate cells, which can result from deficient chromosome partioning causing one of the daughter cells to inherit the two copies of the genome and the other none. Alternatively, anucleate cells can arise from DNA degradation resulting from DNA breaks due to chromosome guillotining by septum placement over the nucleoid [12, 23] or from DNA damage that is not repaired [43]. (ii) Compaction of the nucleoid, a phenotype that has already been observed in B. subtilis and E. coli under DNA damaging conditions, such as UV irradiation.