M. Dassain et Jp. Bouche, THE MIN LOCUS, WHICH CONFERS TOPOLOGICAL SPECIFICITY TO CELL-DIVISION, IS NOT INVOLVED IN ITS COUPLING WITH NUCLEOID SEPARATION, Journal of bacteriology, 176(19), 1994, pp. 6143-6145
In Escherichia coli, nucleoid separation and cell constriction remain
tightly linked when division is retarded by altering the level of synt
hesis of the protein FtsZ. In this study, we have examined the role of
the min locus, which is responsible for the inactivation of polar div
ision sites, in the partition-septation coupling mechanism. We conclud
e that the coupling persists in a Delta min strain and that its timing
relative to replication remains dependent on the level of FtsZ synthe
sis. We suggest that the retarded nucleoid segregation observed in min
mutants is the result of this coupling in cells with a perturbed patt
ern of nonpolar divisions.