CTP switches in bacterial chromosome segregation and physiology: structures, functions, and mechanisms

The binding and degradation of high-energy small molecules, such as ATP and GTP, is widely exploited in biology to switch on/off biological functions. Surprisingly, CTP, another abundant building block of life, is rarely employed as a switch. A recent discovery showed that ParB is the founding member of a CTPase protein family and can bind and break down CTP to control inheritance of genetic material (chromosomes and plasmids) in bacteria; it is possible that CTP switches are ubiquitous in biology but currently under-appreciated. We will investigate this possibility by (i) investigating how CTP switches operate at the molecular level, using three proteins (ParB, Noc, and KorB) as research models, and (ii) discovering other CTP switch proteins in bacteria. Altogether, we will gain fundamental knowledge of CTP switches, open new frontiers in biology and contribute to the effort to combat the transmission of antibiotic-resistance plasmids by directly interfering with CTP switches.