Inner Membrane Protein YhcB Interacts with RodZ Involved in Cell Shape Maintenance in Escherichia coli

Depletion of YhcB, an inner membrane protein of Escherichia coli, inhibited the growth of rodZ deletion mutant showing that the loss of both YhcB and RodZ is synthetically lethal. Furthermore, YhcB was demonstrated to interact with RodZ as well as several other proteins involved in cell shape maintenance and an inner membrane protein YciS of unknown function, using bacterial two-hybrid system. These observations seem to indicate that YhcB is involved in the biogenesis of cell envelope and the maintenance of cell shape together with RodZ.