Lipoprotein DolP supports proper folding of BamA in the bacterial outer membrane, promoting fitness upon envelope stress.

Integral outer membrane proteins (OMPs) are crucial for the maintenance of the proteobacterial envelope permeability barrier to some antibiotics and detergents. In Enterobacteria, envelope stress caused by unfolded OM proteins (OMPs) activates the sigmaE (σE) transcriptional response. σE upregulates OMP-biogenesis factors, including the b-barrel assembly machinery (BAM) that catalyzes OMP folding. Here we report that DolP (formerly YraP), a σE-upregulated and poorly understood OM lipoprotein, is crucial for fitness in cells that undergo envelope stress. We demonstrate that DolP interacts with the BAM complex by associating to OM-assembled BamA. We provide evidence that DolP is important for proper folding of BamA that overaccumulates in the OM, thus supporting OMP biogenesis and OM integrity. Notably, mid-cell recruitment of DolP had been linked to regulation of septal peptidoglycan remodelling by an unknown mechanism. We now reveal that, during envelope stress, DolP loses its association with the mid-cell, thereby suggesting a mechanistic link between envelope stress caused by impaired OMP biogenesis and the regulation of a late step of cell division.