Altered patterns of cellular growth, morphology, replication and division in conditional-lethal mutants of the thermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius
R. Bernander et al., Altered patterns of cellular growth, morphology, replication and division in conditional-lethal mutants of the thermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, MICROBIO-UK, 146, 2000, pp. 749-757
As a basis for studing the essential cellular processes of hyperthermophili
c archaea. thermosensitive mutants of Sulfolobus acidocaldarius were isolat
ed and characterized. Exponential-phase liquid cultures were shifted to the
nonpermissive temperature and growth, viability. and distributions of cell
mass and DNA content were measured as a function of time after the shift.
The observed phenotypes demonstrate that chromosome replication, nucleoid o
rganization, nucleoid partition and cell division. which normally are tight
ly co-ordinated during cellular growth, can be inhibited or uncoupled by mu
tation in this hyperthermophilic archaeon.