Self-organization of the bacterial cell-division protein FtsZ in confined environments

Abstract

We report a microfluidic approach to generate aqueous droplets in oil of different dimensionality, stabilized by a lipid monolayer, to systematically probe the polymerization of bacterial cell-division protein FtsZ into fibrous networks as a function of the concentrations of crowding agent, FtsZ, and GTP. FtsZ bundles confined in droplets were dynamic, and their distribution depended on the intrinsic properties of the system and restrictions imposed by the spatial boundaries.