During cell division, how do bacteria know where the middle of the cell is?

Did you actually think about how bacteria know where the middle of the cell is? More interestingly, have you ever thought about how the cell makes sure that both daughter cells receive all the genetic information?

The same question had come to my mind a few months before. I was so curious to know the answers to these secrets and eventually got to know the real science behind this secret. So here I have explained the answer to the first question.

There are lots of mechanical apparatuses that exist in bacterial cells that carry out numerous types of unique functions within the bacterial body. Fts proteins are one of them that interact inside bacterial cells to form a cell-division apparatus known as the divisome. Structural formation of the divisiome started to form when FtsZ molecules are attached in a ring precisely around the center of the cell. The special feature of this ring is to regulate what will eventually become the cell-division plane.

Now, the question is why the ring forms in the space between the duplicated nucleoids? It is because, before segregating nucleoids, they effectively block the formation of the FtsZ ring. The exact location of the midpoint of a cell by FtsZ is identified by a group of proteins, which are called Min proteins. Min proteins are especially included MinC, MinD, and MinE. On the inner surface of the cytoplasmic membrane a spiral structures are formed by Min D proteins, and they oscillate back and forth from pole to pole. Another function of MinD is to localize MinC to the cytoplasmic membrane. Together, MinC and MinD prevent the formation of the ring structure and thus inhibit cell division. MinE can also able to oscillate from one polar region to another and by sweeping MinC and MinD aside as it moves along. At this stage, during their oscillation cycle, MinC and MinD stay longer at the poles than in other areas. By this time in the center of the cell occupies the lowest concentration of these proteins. As a consequence, in the cell center, a suitable opportunity is created for FtsZ ring assembly, and the FtsZ ring thus recognizes the most wanted division plane. By this method, the Min proteins confirm that the divisome only forms at the center of the cell, not the cell poles.

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Written by:

Md. Rayhan Mahmud

Research student, Department of Ecology and Population Genetics

University of Oulu, Finland

M.Sc. in Microbiology, Jagannath University, Bangladesh