Ftz-Z Ring

Awarded Ralph Sweet Member’s Choice Award, Traditional Media at the AMI 2015 Annual Conference
Z-Ring Stabilization and Constriction Rate Modulation of the ZapA-ZapB-MatP Protein Network
Artist: Jennifer E. Fairman, CMI, FAMI
Client: Jie Xiao, PHD, Associate Professor Department of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry, JHUSOM
Medium / software used: Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe Photoshop CC and PDB
Final presentation format: 2-Page inside spread for Johns Hopkins Magazine
Primary audience: Alumni, Educated Lay Public

About this project: This illustration was created to illuminate the unique structure known as the “Z-ring” and its associated proteins of the E. coli bacterium, which support and regulate cell division. Published as a 2-page spread (in “Artifact”, a feature that highlights striking, attention-grabbing images of new discoveries found or developed at Hopkins), it illustrates the peptidoglycan (PG) protein structure of the divisome and elongasome protein complexes (ZapA-ZapB-MatP). The divisome and elongasome are responsible for PG synthesis during cell division and elongation, respectively. FtsZ assembles into the Z-ring that determines the division plane. FtsA assists in the formation of the Z-ring, recruits downstream division proteins to the Z-ring to generate the divisome that divides the cell, and is involved in coordinating cell wall synthesis during cytokinesis.