ArticleMolecular microbiology2014
A Caulobacter MreB mutant with irregular cell shape exhibits compensatory widening to maintain a preferred surface area to volume ratio.
Article in Molecular microbiology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers.
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Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 44 citations in OpenAlex.
- Alanine-scanning mutagenesis library of MreB reveals distinct roles for regulating cell shape and viability.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- Article
- Effects of antibiotics on bacterial cell morphology and their physiological origins.Biochemical Society transactions · 2022Review
- The material properties of a bacterial-derived biomolecular condensate tune biological function in natural and synthetic systems.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Multiple conserved states characterize the twist landscape of the bacterial actin homolog MreB.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2022Article
- Precise regulation of the relative rates of surface area and volume synthesis in bacterial cells growing in dynamic environments.Nature communications · 2021Article
- A genetic screen to identify factors affected by undecaprenyl phosphate recycling uncovers novel connections to morphogenesis in Escherichia coli.Molecular microbiology · 2021Article
- Self-propelling and rolling of a sessile-motile aggregate of the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus.Communications biology · 2020Article
- Article
- Bacillus subtilis cell diameter is determined by the opposing actions of two distinct cell wall synthetic systems.Nature microbiology · 2019Article
- Surface Area to Volume Ratio: A Natural Variable for Bacterial Morphogenesis.Trends in microbiology · 2018Article
- Cytological analysis and structural quantification of FtsZ1-2 and FtsZ2-1 network characteristics in Physcomitrella patens.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Genomewide phenotypic analysis of growth, cell morphogenesis, and cell cycle events inMolecular systems biology · 2018Article
- Host-Polarized Cell Growth in Animal Symbionts.Current biology : CB · 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
- Sizing up the bacterial cell cycle.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2017Review
- Shapeshifting to Survive: Shape Determination and Regulation in Caulobacter crescentus.Trends in microbiology · 2017Review
- Mechanical strain sensing implicated in cell shape recovery in Escherichia coli.Nature microbiology · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Rod-shaped bacteria typically elongate at a uniform width. To investigate the genetic and physiological determinants involved in this process, we studied a mutation in the morphogenetic protein MreB in Caulobacter crescentus that gives rise to cells with a variable-width phenotype, where cells have regions that are both thinner and wider than wild-type. During growth, individual cells develop a balance of wide and thin regions, and mutant MreB dynamically localizes to poles and thin regions. Surprisingly, the surface area to volume ratio of these irregularly shaped cells is, on average, very similar to wild-type. We propose that, while mutant MreB localizes to thin regions and promotes rod-like growth there, wide regions develop as a compensatory mechanism, allowing cells to maintain a wild-type-like surface area to volume ratio. To support this model, we have shown that cell widening is abrogated in growth conditions that promote higher surface area to volume ratios, and we have observed individual cells with high ratios return to wild-type levels over several hours by developing wide regions, suggesting that compensation can take place at the level of individual cells.
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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.