title: Cell-shape homeostasis in Escherichia coli is driven by growth, division, and nucleoid complexity.
abstract: Analysis of recently published high-throughput measurements of wild-type Escherichia coli cells growing at a wide range of rates demonstrates that cell width W, which is constant at any particular growth rate, is related (with a CV = 2.4%) to the level of nucleoid complexity, expressed as the amount of DNA in genome equivalents that is associated with chromosome terminus (G/terC). The relatively constant (CV = 7.3%) aspect ratio of newborn cells (Lb/W) in populations growing at different rates indicates existence of cell-shape homeostasis. Enlarged W of thymine-limited thyA mutants growing at identical rates support the hypothesis that nucleoid complexity actively affects W. Nucleoid dynamics is proposed to transmit a primary signal to the peptidoglycan-synthesizing system through the transertion mechanism, i.e., coupled transcription/translation of genes encoding membrane proteins and inserting these proteins into the membrane.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Natural Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er-Sheva, Israel. Electronic address: ariehzar@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Arieh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zaritsky
mesh_terms: D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology*; D002876:Chromosomes, Bacterial; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D006706:Homeostasis / Q000502:physiology*; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological
chemical_list: D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins