At the Heart of Bacterial Cytokinesis: The Z Ring.

At the Heart of Bacterial Cytokinesis: The Z Ring. Trends Microbiol. 2019 Jun 03;: Authors: Du S, Lutkenhaus J Abstract Bacterial cell division is mediated by the divisome which is organized by the Z ring, a cytoskeletal element formed by the polymerization of the tubulin homologue FtsZ. Despite billions of years of bacterial evolution, the Z ring is nearly universal among bacteria that have a cell wall and divide by binary fission. Recent studies have revealed the mechanism of cooperative assembly of FtsZ and that the Z ring consists of patches of FtsZ filaments tethered to the membrane that treadmill to distribute the septal biosynthetic machinery. Here, we summarize these advances and discuss questions raised by these new findings. PMID: 31171437 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Trends in Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Trends Microbiol Source Type: research