THE CONTROL OF TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL-ORGANIZATION DURING THE CAULOBACTER CELL-CYCLE

The Caulobacter cell cycle exhibits time-dependent expression of diffe rentiation events. These include the morphological transition of a swa rmer cell to a replication-competent stalked cell and the subsequent p olarized distribution of specific gene products that results in an asy mmetric predivisional cell. Cell division then yields a new swarmer ce ll and a stem-cell-like stalked cell. Two-component signal transductio n proteins involved in cell cycle control and proteins required for ce ll division and flagellar biogenesis have been shown to be regulated t emporally and spatially during the cell cycle. The mechanisms underlyi ng this regulation include protein phosphorylation and proteolysis.