FtsZ (green) forms spirals (top) before sporulation.

Losick/Elsevier

Bacillus subtilis puts its division plane in the right place with the help of cytoskeletal spirals, according to new results from Sigal Ben-Yehuda and Richard Losick (Harvard University, Cambridge, MA).

In a growing B. subtilis cell, the tubulin-like protein FtsZ assembles into a ring structure at the division plane in the middle of the cell. Upon sporulation, cell division is asymmetric, and FtsZ rings form at the poles. Previous models suggested that the shift occurred when FtsZ assembly was blocked at the midcell and activated at the poles.

Ben-Yehuda and Losick examined a GFP fusion of FtsZ during sporulation and discovered that this model was inadequate. The fusions revealed a spiral-like intermediate of FtsZ, which over time extended from the midcell toward both poles. The spirals eventually gave way to polar rings, one of which became the...

The Rockefeller University Press
2002
The Rockefeller University Press
2002
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