Reconstructing the essential bacterial cell cycle machinery Workshop

Because of their relative simplicity, bacteria will probably be the first cells to be fully understood at a systems level. Analysis of the bacterial cell division, including the partition of the nucleoid, and the synthesis of the wall has progressed considerably during the last decade in which new insights on the molecules that play an essential role in the process have been gained. They include substantial detail on the function of proteins like FtsZ, a main actor in the constriction of the cell, the identification of the molecules that prevent the assembly of a division ring in the vicinity of the nucleoid, and the identification of proteins that connect the processes taking place at the cytoplasmic membrane with those functioning in the cell wall and the outer membrane.

This knowledge has triggered a radically new strategy to study division, i.e. the bottom-up synthetic biology approach aiming at reconstructing cell division in the absence of cells. The reconstruction of these molecular machineries responsible for bacterial septation, nucleoid partitioning and envelope biosynthesis has the double interest of being intellectually challenging and having potential applications in drug discovery.

(Courtesy of http://events.embo.org/12-bacteria-cell-cycle/)