Bacterial cell morphogenesis does not require a preexisting template structure.

ABSTRACT: Morphogenesis, the development of shape or form in cells or organisms, is a fundamental but poorly understood process throughout biology. In the bacterial domain, cells have a wide range of characteristic shapes, including rods, cocci, and spirals. The cell wall, composed of a simple meshwork of long glycan strands crosslinked by short peptides (peptidoglycan, PG) and anionic cell wall polymers such as wall teichoic acids (WTAs), is the major determinant of cell shape. It has long been debated whether the formation of new wall material or the transmission of shape from parent to daughter cells requires existing wall material as a template. However, rigorous testing of this hypothesis has been problematical because the cell wall is normally an essential structure. L-forms are wall-deficient

SUBMITTER: Kawai Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3989771 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature