title: [Regulation of determination of bacterial shape].
abstract: Bacteria show various cell shape such as round, rod, helical, and so on. However, each bacterium has its own shape and their length and width are kept in a narrow range in a population. Abnormal cell shape often results in death of the cells. Therefore, it is important to maintain their shape. Rod-shaped bacterium Escherichia coli needs to regulate cell polarity, length and width in order to form rod shape. Bacterial shape is genetically regulated. Especially, MreB, a bacterial actin, and its interacting proteins are involved in the regulation. We have identified rodZ as a novel cell shape determinant and have been analyzing RodZ protein in the past few years. The rodZ mutant is round. We isolated suppressor mutants of the rodZ mutant. The shape of the suppressors was rod shape. By analyzing the rodZ mutant and the suppressors, we concluded that RodZ helps assembly of MreB filaments. MreB plays roles in regulation of cell polarity, length, and width, whereas RodZ is involved in regulation of length and width. In this review, I summarize our research and research from other groups on bacterial cell shape.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Science, College of Science, Rikkyo University.
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shiomi
mesh_terms: D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena / Q000235:genetics*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D016764:Cell Polarity / Q000235:genetics; D048430:Cell Shape / Q000235:genetics*; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; C071525:FtsZ protein, Bacteria; C538795:RodZ protein, E coli; C078473:MreB protein, E coli