2014/10/29 by Romain Mercier, Yoshikazu Kawai, Jeff Errington · 2 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology #Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies #Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms
paper · doi:10.7554/elife.04629
openalex publication_date 2014/10/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The peptidoglycan cell wall is a defining structural feature of the bacterial kingdom. Curiously, some bacteria have the ability to switch to a wall-free or 'L-form' state. Although known for decades, the general properties of L-forms are poorly understood, largely due to the lack of systematic analysis of L-forms in the molecular biology era. Here we show that inhibition of peptidoglycan precursor synthesis promotes the generation of L-forms from both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. We show that the L-forms generated have in common a mechanism of proliferation involving membrane blebbing and tubulation, which is dependent on an altered rate of membrane synthesis. Crucially, this mode of proliferation is independent of the essential FtsZ based division machinery. Our results suggest that the L-form mode of proliferation is conserved across the bacterial kingdom, reinforcing the idea that it could have been used in primitive cells, and opening up its use in the generation of synthetic cells.