[SCAN Highlight] Cell shape dynamics during the staphylococcal cell cycle

SCAN - Paper Highlight

Title: Cell shape dynamics during the staphylococcal cell cycle: what we have learned from super-resolution microscopy

Speaker: Mariana G. Pinho

Affiliation: Bacterial Cell Biology Lab, ITQB

Abstract:

Staphylococcus aureus is an aggressive pathogen and a model organism to study cocci division in sequential orthogonal planes. Despite its clinical relevance, the small size of staphylococcal cells has impaired analysis of changes in morphology during the cell cycle. Using super-resolution microscopy we determined that S. aureus cells are not spherical throughout the cell cycle, but elongate during specific time windows, through peptidoglycan synthesis and remodelling. Furthermore, we show that both peptidoglycan hydrolysis and turgor pressure are required during division for reshaping the flat division septum into a curved surface. In this process, the septum of Staphylococcus generates less than one hemisphere of each daughter cell, a trait we show is common to other cocci. Therefore, cell surface scars of previous divisions, do not divide the cells in quadrants, generating asymmetry in the daughter cells. Our results introduce a need to reassess the models for division plane selection in cocci.

paper highlight:
http://www.itqb.unl.pt/news/how-do-bacteria-divide