'The role of cytoskeleton dynamics in bacterial cell division'
The ancestral tubulin homologue FtsZ is essential for cell division in almost all bacteria. FtsZ localises to the mid-cell as a dense band, known as the Z-ring, where it recruits and directs the cell wall synthesis proteins that build a mid-cell crosswall (septum).

Several years ago, we and others discovered that FtsZ filaments move around the cell surface by a type of motion known as treadmilling. This is where cytoskeleton filaments – actin being the best known example – move by plus end polymerization and minus end depolymerization.
I will discuss our progress towards understanding the functional role of FtsZ dynamics in bacterial cell division in the Gram-positive model organism Bacillus subtilis.

Biography is here: warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/lifesci/people/sholden
Date: 4 November 2024, 13:00 (Monday, 4th week, Michaelmas 2024)
Venue: Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Building, off South Parks Road OX1 3QU
Venue Details: Seminar Room 2, Room 20-138
Speaker: Professor Seamus Holden (Professor of Microbial Biophysics, University of Warwick)
Organising department: Department of Biochemistry
Organiser: Sarah-jane Scard (Department of Biochemistry)
Organiser contact email address: sarah-jane.scard@bioch.ox.ac.uk
Host: Professor Ben Berks (Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford)
Part of: Biochemistry Department Seminar
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Sarah-Jane Scard