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Cell cycle control by oscillating regulatory proteins in Caulobacter crescentus
Author(s) -
Holtzendorff Julia,
Reinhardt Jens,
Viollier Patrick H.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/bies.20384
Subject(s) - caulobacter crescentus , cell cycle , dnaa , master regulator , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , cell cycle progression , cell division , cell , computational biology , genetics , gene , transcription factor , control of chromosome duplication
Significant strides have been made in recent years towards understanding the molecular basis of cell cycle progression in the model bacterium Caulobacter crescentus . At the heart of cell cycle regulation is a multicomponent transcriptional feedback loop, governing the production of successive regulatory waves or pulses of at least three master regulatory proteins. These oscillating master regulators direct the execution of phase‐specific events and, importantly, through intrinsic genetic switches not only determine the length of a given phase, but also provide the driving force that catapults the cell into the next stage of the cell cycle. The genetic switches act as fail safe mechanisms that prevent the cell cycle from relapsing and thus govern the ordered production and the periodicity of these regulatory waves. Here, we detail how the master regulators CtrA, GcrA and DnaA coordinate cell cycle progression and polar development in Caulobacter . BioEssays 28: 355–361, 2006. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.