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“Three for one” — a Simple Growth Mechanism that Guarantees a Precise Copy of the Thin, Rod-Shaped Murein Sacculus of Escherichia coli

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Part of the book series: Federation of European Microbiological Societies Symposium Series ((FEMS,volume 65))

Abstract

During growth and division of Escherichia coli the stress-bearing rod-shaped murein sacculus necessarily has to be elongated and divided into two intact daughter sacculi. For Gram-positive rods such as Bacillus subtilis it has been shown that this is accomplished by an inside-to-outside growth mechanism (Koch and Doyle, 1985). It is based on the presence of a thick multi-layered murein shell which is characteristic for this group of bacteria. The thin murein layer of Gram-negative bacteria demands for a different, more sophisticated mechanism.

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© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Höltje, JV. (1993). “Three for one” — a Simple Growth Mechanism that Guarantees a Precise Copy of the Thin, Rod-Shaped Murein Sacculus of Escherichia coli . In: de Pedro, M.A., Höltje, JV., Löffelhardt, W. (eds) Bacterial Growth and Lysis. Federation of European Microbiological Societies Symposium Series, vol 65. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9359-8_49

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9359-8_49

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-9361-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-9359-8

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