- Title
- Subcellular organisation in bacteria
- Creator
- Lewis, Peter J.
- Relation
- Bacterial Physiology: A Molecular Approach p. 1-42
- Relation
- http://www.springer.com/life+sciences/microbiology/book/978-3-540-74920-2
- Publisher
- Springer
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2008
- Description
- After the first formal description of "animacules" by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in 1683, we became aware of a whole new hidden microscopic world, of which one component is the bacteria. Technological advances in subsequent years allowed us to examine these organisms in ever greater detail, to the point that protein synthesis could be clearly observed using the electron microscope (Miller et al. 1970). Despite all this activity, apart from the observation of large subcellular particles,such as glycogen granules, the bacterial cell was considered to be a bag of undifferentiated cytoplasm. Cells were so small, all the necessary biochemical reactions needed for survival would be able to occur through simple diffusion. Since the mid-1990s, it has become increasingly clear that small though they are, there is a considerable level of subcellular organisation within bacterial cells, and this is important in many processes, including cell division and chromosome segregation. We are just beginning to scratch the surface and are beginning to use an increasing number of sophisticated techniques to probe bacterial cell structure. This chapter focuses on the subcellular organisation of chromosomes and their segregation, cell division, transcription, translation, membranes, and the integrated systems involved in asymmetric division. Most of what we know regarding bacterial subcellular organisation is focused on the model Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Grampositive Bacillus subtilis cells, although the intrinsically asymmetric Caulobacter crescentus has also proved a fertile subject for study.
- Subject
- chromosome; bacteria; subcellular; microcompartments
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/804479
- Identifier
- uon:6633
- Identifier
- ISBN:9783540749202
- Language
- eng
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