IMR Press / FBS / Volume 5 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.2741/S390

Frontiers in Bioscience-Scholar (FBS) is published by IMR Press from Volume 13 Issue 1 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Review
The mechanics of shape in prokaryotes
Show Less
1 Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
2 Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA 3Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

 

Front. Biosci. (Schol Ed) 2013, 5(2), 564–574; https://doi.org/10.2741/S390
Published: 1 January 2013
Abstract

Bacteria derive and maintain a variety of shapes that carry selective benefits. The shapes are usually defined by a mechanically stiff exoskeletal cell wall -- a macro- molecular network of peptidoglycan. The growth of such a network is catalyzed by transglycosylases and transpeptidases, and various cell-wall remodeling enzymes further digest and process the network. To maintain the overall cell shape, the bacterial cytoskeleton coordinates cell wall synthesis on the cellular scale. Recent studies also suggest that the mechanical properties of the bacterial cytoskeleton are important for cell wall growth. Here, we review current experiments and theories on the structure, dynamics and interactions of the bacterial cell wall and cytoskeleton, and their contributions to cell shape maintenance. We also propose future research directions that will help clarify the mystery of bacterial cell morphogenesis.

Keywords
Bacteria
Cell Mechanics
Cell Shape
Cell Wall
Cytoskeleton
Review
Share
Back to top