Abstract
MglB Fills a GAP in Bacterial Polarity and Motility
Highlights
Bacteria exemplify—in miniature and simplified form—many of the processes found in more complex, eukaryotic cells
Just as motile eukaryotic cells can reorganize the proteins at their peripheries to effect a change in direction, at least one bacterium—the soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus—can reorganize the proteins at its front and rear ends to reverse its direction of motion
How Frz complex oscillations cause these directional reversals is unknown. In this issue of PLoS Biology, Yong Zhang, Tam Mignot, and colleagues demonstrate that directional reversals involve a protein apparatus strikingly reminiscent of the one eukaryotic cells use
Summary
Bacteria exemplify—in miniature and simplified form—many of the processes found in more complex, eukaryotic cells. Like their eukaryotic cousins, motile bacteria exhibit polarized morphologies: their front and back ends are distinguished by different concentrations of proteins and specialized cellular structures like pili or flagella. Just as motile eukaryotic cells can reorganize the proteins at their peripheries to effect a change in direction, at least one bacterium—the soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus—can reorganize the proteins at its front and rear ends to reverse its direction of motion.
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