PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Ling Juan Wu
AU  - Seoungjun Lee
AU  - Sungshic Park
AU  - Lucy E. Eland
AU  - Anil Wipat
AU  - Seamus Holden
AU  - Jeff Errington
TI  - Geometric principles underlying the proliferation of a model cell system
AID  - 10.1101/843979
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 843979
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/11/18/843979.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/11/18/843979.full
AB  - Wall deficient variants of many bacteria, called L-forms, divide by a simple mechanism that does not depend on the complex FtsZ-based cell division machine. We have used microfluidic systems to probe the growth, chromosome cycle and division mechanism of Bacillus subtilis L-forms. The results show that forcing cells into a narrow linear configuration greatly improves the efficiency of cell growth and chromosome segregation. This reinforces the view that L-form division is driven by an excess accumulation of surface area over volume. Cell geometry was also found to play a dominant role in controlling the relative positions and movement of segregating chromosomes. The presence of the nucleoid appears to influence division both via a cell volume effect and by nucleoid occlusion, even in the absence of the FtsZ machine. Overall, our results emphasise the importance of geometric effects for a range of critical cell functions and are of relevance for efforts to develop artificial or minimal cell systems.