Oldies but goodies

These are courtesy of Tristan and Ethan:

1) Everyone likes star-shaped bacteria, but not everyone has read the original paper!

Prosthecomicrobium and Ancalomicrobiutm: New Prosthecate Freshwater Bacteria

2) Amazing EM images of the type VI secretion system, from 1967:

A "MICROTUBULE" IN A BACTERIUM 

Lipid-linked cell wall precursors regulate membrane association of bacterial actin MreB

 

Kathrin Schirner, Ye-Jin Eun, Mike Dion, Yun Luo, John D Helmann, Ethan C Garner &
Suzanne Walker

Abstract:
The bacterial actin homolog MreB, which is crucial for rod shape determination, forms filaments that rotate around the cell width on the inner surface of the cytoplasmic membrane. What determines filament association with the membranes or with other cell wall elongation proteins is not known. Using specific chemical and genetic perturbations while following MreB filament motion, we find that MreB membrane association is an actively regulated process that depends on the presence of lipid-linked peptidoglycan precursors. When precursors are depleted, MreB filaments disassemble into the cytoplasm, and peptidoglycan synthesis becomes disorganized. In cells that lack wall teichoic acids but continue to make peptidoglycan, dynamic MreB filaments are observed, although their presence is not sufficient to establish a rod shape. We propose that the cell regulates MreB filament association with the membrane, allowing rapid and reversible inactivation of cell wall enzyme complexes in response to the inhibition of cell wall synthesis.

http://www.nature.com/nchembio/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nchembio.1689.html

Mercier 2014 - Excess membrane synthesis drives a primitive mode of cell proliferation

L-form propagation in B. subtilis.

Imagination in Science, Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff

http://www.ias.ac.in/resonance/Volumes/12/05/0088-0100.pdf

Ultrastructural Assessment of Wolbachia Endosymbiont – Filarial Nematode Host Interaction

High Pressure Freezing/Freeze Substitution Fixation Improves the Ultrastructural Assessment of Wolbachia Endosymbiont – Filarial Nematode Host Interaction

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0086383