title: Bacterial Filament Systems: Toward Understanding Their Emergent Behavior and Cellular Functions.
abstract: Bacteria use homologs of eukaryotic cytoskeletal filaments to conduct many different tasks, controlling cell shape, division, and DNA segregation. These filaments, combined with factors that regulate their polymerization, create emergent self-organizing machines. Here, we summarize the current understanding of the assembly of these polymers and their spatial regulation by accessory factors, framing them in the context of being dynamical systems. We highlight how comparing the in vivo dynamics of the filaments with those measured in vitro has provided insight into the regulation, emergent behavior, and cellular functions of these polymeric systems.
authors.affiliation: From the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department and Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138.
authors.forename: Ye-Jin
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Eun
authors.affiliation: From the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department and Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138.
authors.forename: Mrinal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kapoor
authors.affiliation: From the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department and Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138.
authors.forename: Saman
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hussain
authors.affiliation: From the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department and Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 egarner@g.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Ethan C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Garner
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000737:chemistry / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D008954:Models, Biological; D055503:Protein Multimerization
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; C071525:FtsZ protein, Bacteria
keywords: FtsZ; MreB; actin; bacteria; cell biology; cytoskeleton; tubulin