ReviewCell2018
How to Build a Bacterial Cell: MreB as the Foreman of E. coli Construction.
Review in Cell, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 94 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
94 citing papers in PubMed.
- Cell geometry and membrane protein crowding constrain Escherichia coli growth rate, overflow metabolism, respiration, and maintenance energy.FEBS letters · 2026Article
- Bactofilins are essential spatial organizers of peptidoglycan insertion in the Lyme disease spirocheteJournal of bacteriology · 2026Article
- Conserved rod-to-spherical shape transitions in Escherichia coli through primordial experimental adaptations.Bioscience reports · 2026Article
- Multilevel Regulation of Peptidoglycan Dynamics in Bacteria: From Molecular Mechanisms to Applied Perspectives.Biomolecules · 2026Review
- Alanine-scanning mutagenesis library of MreB reveals distinct roles for regulating cell shape and viability.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- Cooperative and divergent properties of bacterial actin isoforms inBiophysics and physicobiology · 2026Article
- Live imaging of bacterial actin MreBs fromBiophysics and physicobiology · 2026Article
- 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
- Mad28, a conserved actin-like protein in deep-branching magnetotactic bacteria, exhibits cell curvature-dependent localization.Journal of bacteriology · 2025Article
- MreB filaments in the elongasome modulate E. coli membrane curvature.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- E. coli filament buckling modulates Min patterning and cell division.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Streptomyces uses both polar and dispersed cell wall synthesis during exploratory growth.Nature microbiology · 2025Article
- Review
- Cell Geometry and Membrane Protein Crowding Constrain Growth Rate, Overflow Metabolism, Respiration, and Maintenance Energy.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Dissecting the physics of bacterial biofilms with agent-based simulations.Current opinion in solid state & materials science · 2025Article
- Evolutionary rescue of sphericaleLife · 2025Article
- Subcellular systems follow Onsager reciprocity.npj biomedical innovations · 2025Article
- Age-Dependent Pleomorphism inMicroorganisms · 2025Article
- Article
- Characterization of MreCD inJournal of oral microbiology · 2025Article
34 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Cell shape matters across the kingdoms of life, and cells have the remarkable capacity to define and maintain specific shapes and sizes. But how are the shapes of micron-sized cells determined from the coordinated activities of nanometer-sized proteins? Here, we review general principles that have surfaced through the study of rod-shaped bacterial growth. Imaging approaches have revealed that polymers of the actin homolog MreB play a central role. MreB both senses and changes cell shape, thereby generating a self-organizing feedback system for shape maintenance. At the molecular level, structural and computational studies indicate that MreB filaments exhibit tunable mechanical properties that explain their preference for certain geometries and orientations along the cylindrical cell body. We illustrate the regulatory landscape of rod-shape formation and the connectivity between cell shape, cell growth, and other aspects of cell physiology. These discoveries provide a framework for future investigations into the architecture and construction of microbes.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.