@article{60086c7739174a589dabd0b292b59c9b,
title = "A Metabolic Sensor Governing Cell Size in Bacteria",
abstract = "Nutrient availability is one of the strongest determinants of cell size. When grown in rich media, single-celled organisms such as yeast and bacteria can be up to twice the size of their slow-growing counterparts. The ability to modulate size in a nutrient-dependent manner requires cells to: (1) detect when they have reached the appropriate mass for a given growth rate and (2) transmit this information to the division apparatus. We report the identification of a metabolic sensor that couples nutritional availability to division in Bacillus subtilis. A key component of this sensor is an effector, UgtP, which localizes to the division site in a nutrient-dependent manner and inhibits assembly of the tubulin-like cell division protein FtsZ. This sensor serves to maintain a constant ratio of FtsZ rings to cell length regardless of growth rate and ensures that cells reach the appropriate mass and complete chromosome segregation prior to cytokinesis.",
keywords = "CELLBIO, CELLCYCLE, MICROBIO",
author = "Weart, {Richard B.} and Lee, {Amy H.} and Chien, {An Chun} and Haeusser, {Daniel P.} and Hill, {Norbert S.} and Levin, {Petra Anne}",
note = "Funding Information: We would like to thank Vladimir Lazarevic, Fabrizio Arigoni, John Hellmann, Jeffery Errington, Roberto Kolter, Rich Losick, Kouji Matsumoto, and David Rudner for the gift of bacterial strains, plasmids, and reagents. Wandy Beatty and Darcy Gill provided invaluable assistance with electron microscopy. We are also indebted to Amy Buscher, Dorothy Gregg, Joe Vogel, Jim Skeath, Bob Kranz, David Rudner, Rich Losick, Ralph Quatrano, Christina Ambrosi, Victoria Sepulveda, Hsi-Ming Wang, Jenny Liu, and Mike Caparon for helpful discussions and insightful comments on the manuscript. We are grateful to Gene Lee for assistance with plating efficiencies. Finally, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Ryosuke Kadoya and Dhruba Chattoraj for the flow cytometry data shown in Figure 5 . AC is a Lee Foundation Fellow of the McDonnell International Scholars Academy. This work was supported by NIH Public Health Service grant GM64671 to P.A.L. ",
year = "2007",
month = jul,
day = "27",
doi = "10.1016/j.cell.2007.05.043",
language = "English",
volume = "130",
pages = "335--347",
journal = "Cell",
issn = "0092-8674",
number = "2",
}