Biomaterial Database

How bacterial cell division might cheat turgor pressure - a unified mechanism of septal division in Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. 2017

Harold P Erickson

Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical School, Durham, NC 27710, USA.

An important question for bacterial cell division is how the invaginating septum can overcome the turgor force generated by the high osmolarity of the cytoplasm. I suggest that it may not need to. Several studies in Gram-negative bacteria have shown that the periplasm is isoosmolar with the cytoplasm. Indirect evidence suggests that this is also true for Gram-positive bacteria. In this case the invagination of the septum takes place within the uniformly high osmotic pressure environment, and does not have to fight turgor pressure. A related question is how the V-shaped constriction of Gram-negative bacteria relates to the plate-like septum of Gram-positive bacteria. I collected evidence that Gram-negative bacteria have a latent capability of forming plate-like septa, and present a model in which septal division is the basic mechanism in both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D006090	Gram-Negative Bacteria	Bacteria which lose crystal violet stain but are stained pink when treated by Gram's method.	Gram Negative Bacteria
D006094	Gram-Positive Bacteria	Bacteria which retain the crystal violet stain when treated by Gram's method.	Gram Positive Bacteria
D001419	Bacteria	One of the three domains of life (the others being Eukarya and ARCHAEA), also called Eubacteria. They are unicellular prokaryotic microorganisms which generally possess rigid cell walls, multiply by cell division, and exhibit three principal forms: round or coccal, rodlike or bacillary, and spiral or spirochetal. Bacteria can be classified by their response to OXYGEN: aerobic, anaerobic, or facultatively anaerobic; by the mode by which they obtain their energy: chemotrophy (via chemical reaction) or PHOTOTROPHY (via light reaction); for chemotrophs by their source of chemical energy: CHEMOLITHOTROPHY (from inorganic compounds) or chemoorganotrophy (from organic compounds); and by their source for CARBON; NITROGEN; etc.; HETEROTROPHY (from organic sources) or AUTOTROPHY (from CARBON DIOXIDE). They can also be classified by whether or not they stain (based on the structure of their CELL WALLS) with CRYSTAL VIOLET dye: gram-negative or gram-positive.	Eubacteria
D001426	Bacterial Proteins	Proteins found in any species of bacterium.	Bacterial Gene Products,Bacterial Gene Proteins,Gene Products, Bacterial,Bacterial Gene Product,Bacterial Gene Protein,Bacterial Protein,Gene Product, Bacterial,Gene Protein, Bacterial,Gene Proteins, Bacterial,Protein, Bacterial,Proteins, Bacterial