ArticleBiophysical journal2013
Cell shape can mediate the spatial organization of the bacterial cytoskeleton.
Article in Biophysical journal, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sensing the shape of a surface by tightly surface-bound filaments.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Cell envelope growth of Gram-negative bacteria proceeds independently of cell wall synthesis.The EMBO journal · 2023Article
- Expression of Cell-Adhesion Molecules inInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Chiral twisting in a bacterial cytoskeletal polymer affects filament size and orientation.Nature communications · 2020Article
- Article
- Regulation of cytokinesis: FtsZ and its accessory proteins.Current genetics · 2020Review
- Bacillus subtilis cell diameter is determined by the opposing actions of two distinct cell wall synthetic systems.Nature microbiology · 2019Article
- Article
- MreB polymers and curvature localization are enhanced by RodZ and predict E. coli's cylindrical uniformity.Nature communications · 2018Article
- Review
- MreB filaments align along greatest principal membrane curvature to orient cell wall synthesis.eLife · 2018Article
- Recent advances in understanding how rod-like bacteria stably maintain their cell shapes.F1000Research · 2018Review
- MreB Orientation Correlates with Cell Diameter in Escherichia coli.Biophysical journal · 2016Article
- In Vivo study of naturally deformed Escherichia coli bacteria.Journal of bioenergetics and biomembranes · 2016Article
- Bacterial morphogenesis and the enigmatic MreB helix.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2015Article
- Getting into shape: How do rod-like bacteria control their geometry?Systems and synthetic biology · 2014Review
- Rod-like bacterial shape is maintained by feedback between cell curvature and cytoskeletal localization.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2014Article
- Effects of polymerization and nucleotide identity on the conformational dynamics of the bacterial actin homolog MreB.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The bacterial cytoskeleton guides the synthesis of cell wall and thus regulates cell shape. Because spatial patterning of the bacterial cytoskeleton is critical to the proper control of cell shape, it is important to ask how the cytoskeleton spatially self-organizes in the first place. In this work, we develop a quantitative model to account for the various spatial patterns adopted by bacterial cytoskeletal proteins, especially the orientation and length of cytoskeletal filaments such as FtsZ and MreB in rod-shaped cells. We show that the combined mechanical energy of membrane bending, membrane pinning, and filament bending of a membrane-attached cytoskeletal filament can be sufficient to prescribe orientation, e.g., circumferential for FtsZ or helical for MreB, with the accuracy of orientation increasing with the length of the cytoskeletal filament. Moreover, the mechanical energy can compete with the chemical energy of cytoskeletal polymerization to regulate filament length. Notably, we predict a conformational transition with increasing polymer length from smoothly curved to end-bent polymers. Finally, the mechanical energy also results in a mutual attraction among polymers on the same membrane, which could facilitate tight polymer spacing or bundling. The predictions of the model can be verified through genetic, microscopic, and microfluidic approaches.
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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.