Lag is a temporary period of nonreplication seen in bacteria that are introduced to new
media. Despite latency being described by Müller in 1895, only recently have we gained …

Bacterial cell division is orchestrated by a tubulin homologue, FtsZ, which polymerizes to
form a ring-like structure that is both a scaffold for the assembly of the bacterial cytokinetic …

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 …

Bacterial cytokinesis is commonly initiated by the Z-ring, a cytoskeletal structure that
assembles at the site of division. Its primary component is FtsZ, a tubulin superfamily …

FtsZ, a bacterial homolog of tubulin, is well established as forming the cytoskeletal
framework for the cytokinetic ring. Recent work has shown that purified FtsZ, in the absence …

Why do bacteria have shape? Is morphology valuable or just a trivial secondary
characteristic? Why should bacteria have one shape instead of another? Three broad …

Membrane constriction is a prerequisite for cell division. The most common membrane
constriction system in prokaryotes is based on the tubulin homologue FtsZ, whose filaments …

The genus Mycobacterium is best known for its two major pathogenic species, M.
tuberculosis and M. leprae, the causative agents of two of the world's oldest diseases …

Adaptation to fluctuations in nutrient availability is a fact of life for single-celled organisms in
the'wild'. A decade ago our understanding of how bacteria adjust cell cycle parameters to …

It is remarkable how robustly a bacterial species can maintain its preferred size. This
capacity is intimately related to control of the cell cycle: cell size and growth rate determine …