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Content archived on 2024-05-29

Dynamics of the Bacillus subtilis divisome

Final Activity Report Summary - DIVISOME DYNAMICS (Dynamics of the Bacillus subtilis divisome)

Cell division is essential for the survival and reproduction of a bacterium. During vegetative growth in rod-shaped bacteria, such as escherichia coli or bacillus subtilis, cell division takes place at the precise cell centre by the recruitment of the so-called divisome that consists of at least seven conserved proteins.

Current models of the assembly and dynamics of the divisome solely depend on genetically deduced dependence relationships. Furthermore, there is no information on the temporal order of arrival of divisome proteins and on how this affects the assembly and dynamics of cell division. To date, a clear biochemical function has only been described for two of the conserved divisome proteins.

The research carried out by the fellow unravelled how the assembly of the b. subtilis divisome occured in space and time. Furthermore, by using the technical setup which was required for this study, the fellow went on to discover that there was cell-cycle regulation of the initiation of sporulation via the Sda protein. This regulation avoided the generation of spore formers with replicating chromosomes, which would result in diploid or polyploid spores that we showed to have reduced viability.