Featured
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Letter |
Peptidoglycan synthesis drives an FtsZ-treadmilling-independent step of cytokinesis
Single-cell fluorescence microscopy reveals that cytokinesis occurs in two stages in Staphylococcus aureus, an initial slow phase followed by a faster phase after MurJ protein recruitment to the midcell triggers peptidoglycan synthesis.
- João M. Monteiro
- , Ana R. Pereira
- & Mariana G. Pinho
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Article |
Memory and modularity in cell-fate decision making
This study shows that Bacillus subtilis switches from a solitary, motile lifestyle to a multicellular, sessile state in a random, memoryless fashion, but that the underlying gene network is buffered against its own stochastic variation to tightly time the reverse transition; thus bacteria keep track of time to force their progeny to cooperate during the earliest stage of multicellular growth.
- Thomas M. Norman
- , Nathan D. Lord
- & Richard Losick