title: Bacterial evolution: rewiring modules to get in shape.
abstract: Bacterial species take on a wide variety of shapes, but the mechanisms by which specific shapes evolve have remained poorly understood. A recent study demonstrates that two Asticcacaulis species repurposed an ancestral regulatory protein to rewire the modules of stalk regulation, localization, and synthesis, thereby generating new shapes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Lewis Thomas Laboratory, Room 355, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Persat
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Lewis Thomas Laboratory, Room 355, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. Electronic address: zgitai@princeton.edu.
authors.forename: Zemer
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gitai
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D016764:Cell Polarity
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins