ArticlePLoS genetics2012
Cell size and the initiation of DNA replication in bacteria.
Article in PLoS genetics, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 93 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
93 citing papers in PubMed, 152 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Bacterial cell widening alters periplasmic size and activates envelope stress responses.The EMBO journal · 2025Article
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- Relative Distribution of DnaA and DNA inInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Direct single-cell observation of a keyScience advances · 2024Article
- Potential of Selected African Medicinal Plants as Alternative Therapeutics against Multi-Drug-Resistant Bacteria.Biomedicines · 2023Review
- Regulatory elements coordinating initiation of chromosome replication to theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- The Quantification of Bacterial Cell Size: Discrepancies Arise from Varied Quantification Methods.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Fifty-Five Years of Research onLife (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Growth rate is modulated by monitoring cell wall precursors in Bacillus subtilis.Nature microbiology · 2023Article
- DoriC 12.0: an updated database of replication origins in both complete and draft prokaryotic genomes.Nucleic acids research · 2023Article
- Beyond the average: An updated framework for understanding the relationship between cell growth, DNA replication, and division in a bacterial system.PLoS genetics · 2023Article
- Identification of genetic interactions with priB links the PriA/PriB DNA replication restart pathway to double-strand DNA break repair in Escherichia coli.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2022Article
- Robust replication initiation from coupled homeostatic mechanisms.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Nutrient availability as an arbiter of cell size.Trends in cell biology · 2022Review
- Escherichia coli cell factories with altered chromosomal replication scenarios exhibit accelerated growth and rapid biomass production.Microbial cell factories · 2022Article
33 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
In eukaryotes, DNA replication is coupled to the cell cycle through the actions of cyclin-dependent kinases and associated factors. In bacteria, the prevailing view, based primarily from work in Escherichia coli, is that growth-dependent accumulation of the highly conserved initiator, DnaA, triggers initiation. However, the timing of initiation is unchanged in Bacillus subtilis mutants that are ~30% smaller than wild-type cells, indicating that achievement of a particular cell size is not obligatory for initiation. Prompted by this finding, we re-examined the link between cell size and initiation in both E. coli and B. subtilis. Although changes in DNA replication have been shown to alter both E. coli and B. subtilis cell size, the converse (the effect of cell size on DNA replication) has not been explored. Here, we report that the mechanisms responsible for coordinating DNA replication with cell size vary between these two model organisms. In contrast to B. subtilis, small E. coli mutants delayed replication initiation until they achieved the size at which wild-type cells initiate. Modest increases in DnaA alleviated the delay, supporting the view that growth-dependent accumulation of DnaA is the trigger for replication initiation in E. coli. Significantly, although small E. coli and B. subtilis cells both maintained wild-type concentration of DnaA, only the E. coli mutants failed to initiate on time. Thus, rather than the concentration, the total amount of DnaA appears to be more important for initiation timing in E. coli. The difference in behavior of the two bacteria appears to lie in the mechanisms that control the activity of DnaA.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.