Progression of the late-stage divisome is unaffected by the depletion of the cytoplasmic FtsZ pool

Abstract

Silber, Mayer, and colleagues examine how the depletion of the cytoplasmic FtsZ pool, triggered by ADEP antibiotics, affects the different stages of divisome formation and progression in Bacillus subtilis. Using time-lapse and super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, their results show that early FtsZ rings disintegrated upon the depletion of the FtsZ pool, while progressed FtsZ rings finalized cytokinesis once the septal peptidoglycan synthase PBP2b colocalized at the division site.