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Coordination of Cell Division and Chromosome Segregation by a Nucleoid Occlusion Protein in Bacillus subtilis

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Ling Juan Wu, Professor Jeff ErringtonORCiD

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Abstract

A range of genetical and physiological experiments have established that diverse bacterial cells possess a function called nucleoid occlusion, which acts to prevent cell division in the vicinity of the nucleoid. We have identified a specific effector of nucleoid occlusion in Bacillus subtilis, Noc (YyaA), as an inhibitor of division that is also a nonspecific DNA binding protein. Under various conditions in which the cell cycle is perturbed, Noc prevents the division machinery from assembling in the vicinity of the nucleoid. Unexpectedly, cells lacking both Noc and the Min system (which prevents division close to the cell poles) are blocked for division, apparently because they establish multiple nonproductive accumulations of division proteins. The results help to explain how B. subtilis specifies the division site under a range of conditions and how it avoids catastrophic breakage of the chromosome by division through the nucleoid.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Wu LJ, Errington J

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Cell

Year: 2004

Volume: 117

Issue: 7

Pages: 915-925

ISSN (print): 0092-8674

ISSN (electronic): 1097-4172

Publisher: Cell Press

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2004.06.002

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2004.06.002

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