MCB 3020C Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Chemostat, Mreb, Exponential Growth
Document Summary
Microbial growth is defined as an increase in cell numbers and is the final result of the doubling of all cell components prior to actual division that yields two daughter cells. Cell division and chromosome replication are coordinately regulated, and the fts proteins are keys to these processes. With the help in mine, ftsz defines the cell division plane and helps assemble the divisome, the protein complex that orchestrates cell division. Mreb helps define cell shape, and ro-shaped cells, mreb forms a cytoskeleton coil that directs cell wall synthesis along the long axis of the cell. The protein crescentin plays an analogous role in caulobacer, leading to formation of a curved cell. The eukaryotic shape and cell division proteins actin and tubulin have prokaryotic counterparts. During bacterial growth, new cell peptidoglycan is synthesized by the insertion of new glycan tetrapeptide units into preexisting peptidoglycan. Bactoprenol facilitates transport of these units through the cytoplasmic membrane.
