Molecular coordination of Staphylococcus aureus cell division

• Published in: eLife 2018-02, Vol.7
• Main Authors: Lund, Victoria A, Wacnik, Katarzyna, Turner, Robert D, Cotterell, Bryony E, Walther, Christa G, Fenn, Samuel J, Grein, Fabian, Wollman, Adam Jm, Leake, Mark C, Olivier, Nicolas, Cadby, Ashley, Mesnage, Stéphane, Jones, Simon, Foster, Simon J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bacteria; Cell cycle; Cell Division; Cell wall; Cell Wall - metabolism; Cell walls; Division; Divisome; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; Gene Regulatory Networks; Localization; Microbiology and Infectious Disease; Microscopy; Models, Biological; Penicillin; Peptidoglycan; Peptidoglycan - metabolism; Peptidoglycans; Protein Interaction Maps; Proteins; Staphylococcus aureus; Staphylococcus aureus - physiology; Turgor
• ISSN: 2050-084X; 2050-084X
• DOI: 10.7554/eLife.32057

The bacterial cell wall is essential for viability, but despite its ability to withstand internal turgor must remain dynamic to permit growth and division. Peptidoglycan is the major cell wall structural polymer, whose synthesis requires multiple interacting components. The human pathogen is a prolate spheroid that divides in three orthogonal planes. Here, we have integrated cellular morphology during division with molecular level resolution imaging of peptidoglycan synthesis and the components responsible. Synthesis occurs across the developing septal surface in a diffuse pattern, a necessity of the observed septal geometry, that is matched by variegated division component distribution. Synthesis continues after septal annulus completion, where the core division component FtsZ remains. The novel molecular level information requires re-evaluation of the growth and division processes leading to a new conceptual model, whereby the cell cycle is expedited by a set of functionally connected but not regularly distributed components.