New model for assembly dynamics of bacterial tubulin in relation to the stages of DNA replication

Abstract

How living cells receive their genome through cell division has been one of the important questions of biology. In prokaryotes, cell division starts with formation of a ring-shaped microtubule-like structure, FtsZ-ring, at the potential division site. All the previous models suggested that FtsZ-ring is formed coupling to termination or far after initiation of DNA replication. In contrast, we demonstrated that a close communication with DNA replication is maintained throughout the cell cycle. FtsZ starts to assemble to the cell center coupling to initiation of DNA replication, and stabilizes as FtsZ-ring at its termination, but does not constrict before separation of nucleoids. This combination of a positive and a negative control would guarantee that a successful replication event would inevitably induce one cell division such that each of the daughter cells would receive one and only one daughter nucleoid.