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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Seoungjun Lee, Dr Ling Juan Wu, Professor Jeff ErringtonORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2019 The Authors. MicrobiologyOpen published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Recent studies taking advantage of automated single-cell time-lapse analysis have reignited interest in the bacterial cell cycle. Several studies have highlighted alternative models, such as Sizer and Adder, which differ essentially in relation to whether cells can measure their present size or their amount of growth since birth. Most of the recent work has been done with Escherichia coli. We set out to study the well-characterized Gram-positive bacterium, Bacillus subtilis, at the single-cell level, using an accurate fluorescent marker for division as well as a marker for completion of chromosome replication. Our results are consistent with the Adder model in both fast and slow growth conditions tested, and with Sizer but only at the slower growth rate. We also find that cell size variation arises not only from the expected variation in size at division but also that division site offset from mid-cell contributes to a significant degree. Finally, although traditional cell cycle models imply a strong connection between the termination of a round of replication and subsequent division, we find that at the single-cell level these events are largely disconnected.
Author(s): Lee S, Wu LJ, Errington J
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: MicrobiologyOpen
Year: 2019
Volume: 8
Issue: 10
Online publication date: 13/06/2019
Acceptance date: 13/05/2019
Date deposited: 04/11/2019
ISSN (electronic): 2045-8827
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/mbo3.876
DOI: 10.1002/mbo3.876
PubMed id: 31197963
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