Mechanical strain sensing implicated in cell shape recovery in Escherichia coli.

ABSTRACT: The shapes of most bacteria are imparted by the structures of their peptidoglycan cell walls, which are determined by many dynamic processes that can be described on various length scales ranging from short-range glycan insertions to cellular-scale elasticity^1-11. Understanding the mechanisms that maintain stable, rod-like morphologies in certain bacteria has proved to be challenging due to an incomplete understanding of the feedback between growth and the elastic and geometric properties of the cell wall^3,4,12-14. Here, we probe the effects of mechanical strain on cell shape by modelling the mechanical strains caused by bending and differential growth of the cell wall. We show that the spatial coupling of growth to regions of high mechanical strain can explain the pl

SUBMITTER: Wong F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5540194 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature