Protein localization during the Caulobacter crescentus cell cycle

New research on bacterial cells has demonstrated that they have a dynamic a nd complex subcellular organization. Work in Caulobacter crescentus shows t hat essential and nonessential proteins localize to discrete positions in t he cell as a function of cell-cycle progression. The flagellum and chemotax is receptor are asymmetrically localized to a single pole in the predivisio nal cell by coordinated proteolysis and transcriptional regulation. Cell ty pe- and compartment-specific localization of the CtrA global transcriptiona l regulator is essential for proper cell-cycle progression, and subcellular localization of key chromosome partitioning proteins is correlated with pr oper nucleoid segregation. Given this structural complexity, we are driven to ask how localization is achieved, and to what end.