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Cell division machinery drives cell-specific gene activation during bacterial differentiation
Sylvia Chareyre1, Xuesong Li2,3, Brandon R Anjuwon-Foster1
1Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Biorxiv : the Preprint Server for Biology
|October 4, 2023
Summary
Bacillus subtilis sporulation relies on asymmetric cell division. Researchers identified a DivIVA variant disrupting this asymmetry, revealing the cell division machinery
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Cell Biology
- Molecular Biology
Background:
- Bacillus subtilis undergoes sporulation into dormant spores during starvation.
- Sporulation initiation involves asymmetric cell division and sigma factor activation.
- SpoIIE phosphatase localization is crucial for asymmetric sigma factor activation but its mechanism is unclear.
Conclusions:
- The sporulation septum's unique features, dictated by the cell division machinery, are essential for asymmetric DivIVA and SpoIIE localization.
- This asymmetric localization is a key trigger for initiating the Bacillus subtilis sporulation program.
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