Frontiers in Microbiology (Aug 2015)
Chromosome replication, cell growth, division and shape: a personal perspective
Abstract
The origins of Molecular Biology and Bacterial Physiology are reviewed, from our personal standpoints, emphasizing the coupling between bacterial growth, chromosome replication and cell division, dimensions and shape. Current knowledge is discussed with historical perspective, summarizing past and present achievements and enlightening ideas for future studies. An interactive simulation program of the Bacterial Cell Division Cycle (BCD), described as The Central Dogma in Bacteriology, is briefly represented. The coupled process of transcription/translation of genes encoding membrane proteins and insertion into the membrane (so-called transertion) is invoked as the functional relationship between the only two unique macromolecules in the cell, DNA and peptidoglycan embodying the nucleoid and the sacculus respectively. We envision that nucleoid complexity, defined as the weighted-mean DNA content associated with the replication terminus, is directly related to cell shape through the transertion process. Accordingly, the primary signal for cell division transmitted by DNA dynamics (replication, transcription and segregation) to the peptidoglycan biosynthetic machinery is of a physico-chemical nature, eg stress in the plasma membrane, relieving nucleoid occlusion in the cell's center hence enabling the divisome to assemble and function between segregated daughter nucleoids.
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