Abstract
Bacterial cell division proteins, especially the tubulin homologue FtsZ, have emerged as strong targets for developing new antibiotics. Here, we have utilized the fission yeast heterologous expression system to develop a cell-based assay to screen for small molecules that directly and specifically target the bacterial cell division protein FtsZ. The strategy also allows for simultaneous assessment of the toxicity of the drugs to eukaryotic yeast cells. As a proof-of-concept of the utility of this assay, we demonstrate the effect of the inhibitors sanguinarine, berberine, and PC190723 on FtsZ. Though sanguinarine and berberine affect FtsZ polymerization, they exert a toxic effect on the cells. Further, using this assay system, we show that PC190723 affects Helicobacter pylori FtsZ function and gain new insights into the molecular determinants of resistance to PC190723. On the basis of sequence and structural analysis and site-specific mutations, we demonstrate that the presence of salt bridge interactions between the central H7 helix and β-strands S9 and S10 mediates resistance to PC190723 in FtsZ. The single-step in vivo cell-based assay using fission yeast enabled us to dissect the contribution of sequence-specific features of FtsZ and cell permeability effects associated with bacterial cell envelopes. Thus, our assay serves as a potent tool to rapidly identify novel compounds targeting polymeric bacterial cytoskeletal proteins like FtsZ to understand how they alter polymerization dynamics and address resistance determinants in targets.