Macromolecular crowding affects the activity of proteins and functional macromolecular
complexes in all cells, including bacteria. Crowding, together with physicochemical …

The biological diversity of the unicellular bacteria—whether assessed by shape, food,
metabolism, or ecological niche—surely rivals (if not exceeds) that of the multicellular …

Constructing a minimal machinery for autonomous self-division of synthetic cells is a major
goal of bottom-up synthetic biology. One paradigm has been the E. coli divisome, with the …

Cell shape matters across the kingdoms of life, and cells have the remarkable capacity to
define and maintain specific shapes and sizes. But how are the shapes of micron-sized cells …

Staphylococcus aureus is an important human and livestock pathogen that is well-protected
against environmental insults by a thick cell wall. Accordingly, the wall is a major target of …

To examine how bacteria achieve robust cell proliferation across diverse conditions, we
developed a method that quantifies 77 cell morphological, cell cycle, and growth …

Proteins with a catalytically inactive LytM-type endopeptidase domain are important
regulators of cell wall-degrading enzymes in bacteria. Here, we study their representative …

ADP-ribosylation of proteins can profoundly impact their function and serves as an effective
mechanism by which bacterial toxins impair eukaryotic cell processes. Here, we report the …

FtsZ, the primary protein of the bacterial Z ring guiding cell division, has been recently
shown to engage in intriguing treadmilling dynamics along the circumference of the division …

Decades of research, much of it in Escherichia coli, have yielded a wealth of insight into
bacterial cell division. Here, we provide an overview of the E. coli division machinery with an …