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Updated: Jul 27, 2026

Using Microfluidics and Fluorescence Microscopy to Study the Assembly Dynamics of Single Actin Filaments and Bundles
Published on: May 5, 2022
Dynamic filaments of the bacterial cytoskeleton
1Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge CB2 2QH, UK. kmichie@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk
Abstract:
Bacterial cells contain a variety of structural filamentous proteins necessary for the spatial regulation of cell shape, cell division, and chromosome segregation, analogous to the eukaryotic cytoskeletal proteins. The molecular mechanisms by which these proteins function are beginning to be revealed, and these proteins show numerous three-dimensional structural features and biochemical properties similar to those of eukaryotic actin and tubulin, revealing their evolutionary relationship. Recent technological advances have illuminated links between cell division and chromosome segregation, suggesting a higher complexity and organization of the bacterial cell than was previously thought.
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