title: A quantitative study of the division cycle of Caulobacter crescentus stalked cells.
abstract: Progression of a cell through the division cycle is tightly controlled at different steps to ensure the integrity of genome replication and partitioning to daughter cells. From published experimental evidence, we propose a molecular mechanism for control of the cell division cycle in Caulobacter crescentus. The mechanism, which is based on the synthesis and degradation of three "master regulator" proteins (CtrA, GcrA, and DnaA), is converted into a quantitative model, in order to study the temporal dynamics of these and other cell cycle proteins. The model accounts for important details of the physiology, biochemistry, and genetics of cell cycle control in stalked C. crescentus cell. It reproduces protein time courses in wild-type cells, mimics correctly the phenotypes of many mutant strains, and predicts the phenotypes of currently uncharacterized mutants. Since many of the proteins involved in regulating the cell cycle of C. crescentus are conserved among many genera of alpha-proteobacteria, the proposed mechanism may be applicable to other species of importance in agriculture and medicine.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States of America.
authors.forename: Shenghua
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Brazhnik
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sobral
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Tyson
mesh_terms: D016935:Caulobacter crescentus / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000502:physiology*; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008954:Models, Biological; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins