To grow and divide properly, bacteria need to coordinate DNA replication with cell division. A recent study identifies CcrZ as a protein from Streptococcus pneumoniae that links these two processes by interacting with FtsZ, the orchestrator of cell division, and modulating the activity of DnaA, the initiator of DNA replication.
References
Dewachter, L., Verstraeten, N., Fauvart, M. & Michiels, J. FEMS Microbiol. Rev. 42, 116–136 (2018).
Bottomley, A. L. & Harry, E. J. Front. Microbiol. 5, 19 (2014).
Eswara, P. J. & Ramamurthi, K. S. Annu. Rev. Microbiol. 71, 393–411 (2017).
Gallay, C. et al. Nat. Microbiol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-021-00949-1 (2021).
Mannik, J. & Bailey, M. W. Front. Microbiol. 6, 306 (2015).
Ozaki, S., Jenal, U. & Katayama, T. mBio 11, e00487–20 (2020).
Buss, J. A., Peters, N. T., Xiao, J. & Bernhardt, T. G. Mol. Microbiol. 104, 652–663 (2017).
van Raaphorst, R., Kjos, M. & Veening, J. W. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, E5959–E5968 (2017).
Scholefield, G. & Murray, H. Mol. Microbiol. 90, 147–159 (2013).
Liu, X. et al. Mol. Syst. Biol. 13, 931 (2017).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The author declares no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lutkenhaus, J. Linking DNA replication to the Z ring. Nat Microbiol 6, 1108–1109 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-021-00951-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-021-00951-7
- Springer Nature Limited