PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Nikola Ojkic
AU  - Diana Serbanescu
AU  - Shiladitya Banerjee
TI  - Universal surface-to-volume scaling and aspect ratio homeostasis in rod-shaped bacteria
AID  - 10.1101/583989
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 583989
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/03/21/583989.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/03/21/583989.full
AB  - Rod-shaped bacterial cells can readily adapt their lengths and widths in response to environmental changes. While many recent studies have focused on the mechanisms underlying bacterial cell size control, it remains largely unknown how the coupling between cell length and width results in robust control of rod-like bacterial shapes. In this study we uncover a universal surface-to-volume scaling relation in Escherichia coli and other rod-shaped bacteria, resulting from the preservation of cell aspect ratio. To explain the mechanistic origin of aspect-ratio control, we propose a quantitative model for the coupling between bacterial cell elongation and the accumulation of an essential division protein, FtsZ. This model reveals a mechanism for why bacterial aspect ratio is independent of cell size and growth conditions, and predicts cell morphological changes in response to nutrient perturbations, antibiotics, MreB or FtsZ depletion, in quantitative agreement with experimental data.