Daniel Richard A, Errington Jeff
Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3RE, United Kingdom.
Cell. 2003 Jun 13;113(6):767-76. doi: 10.1016/s0092-8674(03)00421-5.
Cell shape in most eubacteria is maintained by a tough external peptidoglycan cell wall. Recently, cell shape determining proteins of the MreB family were shown to form helical, actin-like cables in the cell. We used a fluorescent derivative of the antibiotic vancomycin as a probe for nascent peptidoglycan synthesis in unfixed cells of various Gram-positive bacteria. In the rod-shaped bacterium B. subtilis, synthesis of the cylindrical part of the cell wall occurs in a helical pattern governed by an MreB homolog, Mbl. However, a few rod-shaped bacteria have no MreB system. Here, a rod-like shape can be achieved by a completely different mechanism based on use of polar growth zones derived from the division machinery. These results provide insights into the diverse molecular strategies used by bacteria to control their cellular morphology, as well as suggesting ways in which these strategies may impact on growth rates and cell envelope structure.
大多数真细菌的细胞形状是由坚韧的外部肽聚糖细胞壁维持的。最近，MreB家族的细胞形状决定蛋白被证明在细胞中形成螺旋状的、类似肌动蛋白的索状结构。我们使用抗生素万古霉素的荧光衍生物作为探针，来检测各种革兰氏阳性菌未固定细胞中新生肽聚糖的合成。在杆状细菌枯草芽孢杆菌中，细胞壁圆柱形部分的合成以螺旋模式发生，该模式由MreB同源物Mbl控制。然而，一些杆状细菌没有MreB系统。在这里，杆状形状可以通过基于利用源自分裂机制的极性生长区的完全不同的机制来实现。这些结果为细菌控制其细胞形态所采用的多种分子策略提供了见解，同时也暗示了这些策略可能影响生长速率和细胞包膜结构的方式。
