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The Use of Thermosensitive Mutants of E.coli in the Analysis of Cell Division

1971; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-1-4684-3330-2_5

0067-8864

Yukinori Hirota, M. Ricard, Bennett M. Shapiro,

Diet and metabolism studies

A series of temperature conditional mutants of E.coli K12 which are defective in different aspects of cell division were isolated. Some of these had thermosensitive mutations in DNA synthesis, either in the initiation of DNA synthesis or the elongation of DNA chain, DNA segregation and septation. Characterization of the biochemical lesions and the genetic analysis of the mutations were carried out in some mutants defective in DNA synthesis. In correlation with the alteration in DNA synthesis, several lines of evidence indicate an alteration in the structure of the cell membrane. The available results lead one to visualize the replication machinery as a complex structure which is integrated into the membrane. A model for the role of the membrane in the cell division process and some predictions of the model are presented.