Figures
Uncontrolled elongation of the rugby-ball-shaped bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae induces FtsZ spiraling.
Streptococcus pneumoniae cells display an ovoid shape due to the coordinated synthesis of septal (for division) and peripheral (for elongation) peptidoglycan. Upon deletion of the gpsB gene, we show that cells aberrantly elongate together with hampered cell division. We have used this mutant as a trick to further decipher how the pneumococcus manages cell elongation before constriction and separation. We notably observe that elongated cells display a FtsZ helical organization. Together with other observations, we propose that a single peptidoglycan synthesis machinery organized by FtsZ is finely tuned to allow successful division and elongation of pneumococcal cells. See Fleurie et al.
Image Credit: Aurore Fleurie, Bases Moléculaires et Structurales des Systèmes Infectieux, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Claude Bernard Lyon I, France.
Citation: (2014) PLoS Genetics Issue Image | Vol. 10(4) April 2014. PLoS Genet 10(4): ev10.i04. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pgen.v10.i04
Published: April 24, 2014
Copyright: © 2014 Fleurie et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Streptococcus pneumoniae cells display an ovoid shape due to the coordinated synthesis of septal (for division) and peripheral (for elongation) peptidoglycan. Upon deletion of the gpsB gene, we show that cells aberrantly elongate together with hampered cell division. We have used this mutant as a trick to further decipher how the pneumococcus manages cell elongation before constriction and separation. We notably observe that elongated cells display a FtsZ helical organization. Together with other observations, we propose that a single peptidoglycan synthesis machinery organized by FtsZ is finely tuned to allow successful division and elongation of pneumococcal cells. See Fleurie et al.
Image Credit: Aurore Fleurie, Bases Moléculaires et Structurales des Systèmes Infectieux, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Claude Bernard Lyon I, France.