title: Bacterial cell division: the mechanism and its precison.
abstract: The recent development of cell biology techniques for bacteria to allow visualization of fundamental processes in time and space, and their use in synchronous populations of cells, has resulted in a dramatic increase in our understanding of cell division and its regulation in these tiny cells. The first stage of cell division is the formation of a Z ring, composed of a polymerized tubulin-like protein, FtsZ, at the division site precisely at midcell. Several membrane-associated division proteins are then recruited to this ring to form a complex, the divisome, which causes invagination of the cell envelope layers to form a division septum. The Z ring marks the future division site, and the timing of assembly and positioning of this structure are important in determining where and when division will take place in the cell. Z ring assembly is controlled by many factors including negative regulatory mechanisms such as Min and nucleoid occlusion that influence Z ring positioning and FtsZ accessory proteins that bind to FtsZ directly and modulate its polymerization behavior. The replication status of the cell also influences the positioning of the Z ring, which may allow the tight coordination between DNA replication and cell division required to produce two identical newborn cells.
authors.affiliation: Institute for the Biotechnology of Infectious Diseases, University of Technology, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Harry
authors.forename: Leigh
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Monahan
authors.forename: Lyndal
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Thompson
mesh_terms: D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics / Q000648:ultrastructure; D001419:Bacteria / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology; D002453:Cell Cycle; D002455:Cell Division; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics / Q000648:ultrastructure; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D008954:Models, Biological; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; C071525:FtsZ protein, Bacteria