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Bacterial physiology: Life minus Z

The surprising discovery of viable mutants that retain a peptidoglycan cell wall but lack the essential director of normal cytokinesis, FtsZ, reveals that Escherichia coli can proliferate in a completely unexpected manner.

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Figure 1: Plasticity in E. coli cell shape and proliferation.

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Correspondence to Piet A. J. de Boer.

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de Boer, P. Bacterial physiology: Life minus Z. Nat Microbiol 1, 16121 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.121

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