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SUMMARY:Life without a wall or division machine in Bacillus subtilis
DTSTART:20090313T153000
DTSTAMP:20260408T063810Z
UID:ebbe69ea4ffbccfaa3faad63590c1b6ae3daf8195cc408769e3386e4
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Jeff Errington\nThe cell wall is an essential structure for vi
 rtually all bacteria\, forming a tough outer shell that protects the cell 
 from damage and osmotic lysis. It is the target for our best antibiotics. 
 L-forms are wall-deficient derivatives of common bacteria that have been s
 tudied for decades. However\, they are difficult to generate and typically
  require growth for many generations on osmotically protective media with 
 antibiotics or enzymes that kill walled forms. Despite their potential imp
 ortance for understanding antibiotic resistance and pathogenesis\, little 
 is known about their basic cell biology or their means of propagation. We 
 have developed a controllable system for generating L-forms in the highly 
 tractable model bacterium Bacillus subtilis. Genome sequencing identified 
 a single point mutation that predisposes cells to grow without a wall. The
 se experiments were originally aimed at testing the role of the wall in ce
 ll division. However\, we found that propagation of L-forms does not requi
 re the normal FtsZ-dependent division machine that is thought to be crucia
 l for proliferation throughout the bacteria. Instead\, L-forms propagate b
 y a novel and completely unexpected mechanism we call extrusion-resolution
 \, or “extrolution”. The existence of this form of proliferation has i
 mplications for understanding how early forms of cellular life may have pr
 oliferated.
LOCATION:AI 1153 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==AI%201153
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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