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Identifying how bacterial cells find their middle: a new perspective

Funding: 2012: $117,000
2013: $105,000
2014: $105,000

Project Member(s): Harry, E.

Funding or Partner Organisation: Australian Research Council (Other funds for ARC projects)
Australian Research Council (ARC Discovery Projects)
Nara Institute of Science and Technology

Start year: 2012

Summary: Spatial regulation of cell division is vital to ensure equal partitioning of DNA into newborn cells. Positioning of the division site in bacteria is an area of research considered to be 'done and dusted'. However, our recent discoveries have led to an entirely different model for division site placement in bacteria that proposes direct roles for DNA replication and chromosome organization. This project combines newly developed technology, with complementary expertise in bacterial cell division and DNA replication, to test this model and facilitate our understanding of this fundamental process crucial to bacterial growth and infection.

Publications:

Hajduk, IV, Mann, R, Rodrigues, CDA & Harry, EJ 2019, 'The ParB homologs, Spo0J and Noc, together prevent premature midcell Z ring assembly when the early stages of replication are blocked in Bacillus subtilis', Molecular Microbiology, vol. 112, no. 3, pp. 766-784.
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Hajduk, IV, Rodrigues, CDA & Harry, EJ 2016, 'Connecting the dots of the bacterial cell cycle: Coordinating chromosome replication and segregation with cell division', Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology, vol. 53, pp. 2-9.
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Keywords: cell divisionbacteriaDNA replication

FOR Codes: Bacteriology, Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences, Microbial Genetics, Expanding Knowledge in Technology, Bacteriology , Microbial genetics , EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE