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Molecular coordination of Staphylococcus aureus cell division

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Adam WollmanORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Abstract

© Lund et al.The bacterial cell wall is essential for viability, but despite its ability to withstand internal turgor must remain dynamic to permit growth and division. Peptidoglycan is the major cell wall structural polymer, whose synthesis requires multiple interacting components. The human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus is a prolate spheroid that divides in three orthogonal planes. Here, we have integrated cellular morphology during division with molecular level resolution imaging of peptidoglycan synthesis and the components responsible. Synthesis occurs across the developing septal surface in a diffuse pattern, a necessity of the observed septal geometry, that is matched by variegated division component distribution. Synthesis continues after septal annulus completion, where the core division component FtsZ remains. The novel molecular level information requires re-evaluation of the growth and division processes leading to a new conceptual model, whereby the cell cycle is expedited by a set of functionally connected but not regularly distributed components.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Lund VA, Wacnik K, Turner RD, Cotterell BE, Walther CG, Fenn SJ, Grein F, Wollman AJM, Leake MC, Olivier N, Cadby A, Mesnage S, Jones S, Foster SJ

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: eLife

Year: 2018

Volume: 7

Online publication date: 21/02/2018

Acceptance date: 26/01/2018

Date deposited: 10/02/2020

ISSN (electronic): 2050-084X

Publisher: eLife Sciences Publications Ltd

URL: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.32057

DOI: 10.7554/eLife.32057

PubMed id: 29465397

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