Protein Patterns and Oscillations on Lipid Monolayers and in Microdroplets

The Min proteins from E.coli position the bacterial cell-division machinery through pole-to-pole oscillations. In vitro, Min protein self-organization can be reconstituted in the presence of a lipid membrane as a catalytic surface. However, Min dynamics have so far not been reconstituted in fully membrane-enclosed volumes. Microdroplets interfaced by lipid monolayers were employed as a simple 3D mimic of cellular compartments to reconstitute Min protein oscillations. We demonstrate that lipid monolayers are sufficient to fulfil the catalytic role of the membrane and thus represent a facile platform to investigate Min protein regulated dynamics of the cell-division protein FtsZ-mts. In particular, we show that droplet containers reveal distinct Min oscillation modes, and reveal a dependence of FtsZ-mts structures on compartment size. Finally, co-reconstitution of Min proteins and FtsZ-mts in droplets yields antagonistic localization, thus demonstrating that droplets indeed support the analysis of complex bacterial self-organization in confined volumes.