Editorial: The Bacterial Cell: Coupling between Growth, Nucleoid Replication, Cell Division, and Shape.

Abstract

The nucleoid and cell envelope are two unique macromolecules that define a bacterium. To ensure that the essential genetic information is carried faithfully from one generation to the next their duplications must be coupled. Research dating back more than half a century established that this is realized at the level of replication-initiation and cell division. These seminal investigations demonstrated that cell size determines when replication starts and that, in turn, the progress in replication determines when cell division processes occur. Moreover, cell division was later established to be spatially controlled by the structure and position of the nucleoid. Despite extensive research over the past 60 years, detailed understanding on how these spatio-temporal couplings are realized at the molecular level is yet to emerge. The aim in creating this e-book has been to bring together scientists from different backgrounds spanning biology, chemistry and physics to address these fundamental mechanisms in a bacterial cell. The book starts with a historical overview of the research that has established the field. It then advances through series of reviews and research articles devoted to the nucleoid, cell envelope, and their temporary hyper-structures, the orisome, replisome, and divisome. Finally, coupling between them is discussed in the last set of contributions.