Establishing how bacterial cells position the division site

Funding: 2006: $88,000
2007: $83,000
2008: $83,000

Funding or Partner Organisation: Australian Research Council (ARC Discovery Projects)

Start year: 2006

Summary: We will determine how bacterial cells position the site of cell division with high precision to ensure faithful production of newborn cells. Resolving this intensively studied and controversial aspect of biology is fundamental to our understanding of a process essential for life and to the design of new antibiotics. Currently there are two different, but not mutually exclusive, ideas regarding how the bacterial division site is precisely positioned at the cell centre. We will definitively establish the extent to which these ideas are correct using a unique combination of frontier techniques in bacterial cell biology with a synchronous cell cycle.

Publications:

Rodrigues, CDA & Harry, EJ 2012, 'The Min System and Nucleoid Occlusion Are Not Required for Identifying the Division Site in Bacillus subtilis but Ensure Its Efficient Utilization', PLoS Genetics, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. e1002561-e1002561.
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Strauss, MP, Liew, ATF, Turnbull, L, Whitchurch, CB, Monahan, LG & Harry, EJ 2012, '3D-SIM Super Resolution Microscopy Reveals a Bead-Like Arrangement for FtsZ and the Division Machinery: Implications for Triggering Cytokinesis', PLOS BIOLOGY, vol. 10, no. 9, p. e1001389.
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Keywords: bacteria, cell division, DNA replication,

FOR Codes: Microbial Genetics, Bacteriology, Higher education, Vocational education and training, Bacteriology , Microbial genetics

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.