Crucial Role for Membrane Fluidity in Proliferation of Primitive Cells

• Main Authors: Romain Mercier, Patricia Domínguez-Cuevas, Jeff Errington
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2012-05-01
• Series: Cell Reports
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211124712000939

The cell wall is a defining structural feature of the bacterial subkingdom. However, most bacteria are capable of mutating into a cell-wall-deficient “L-form” state, requiring remarkable physiological and structural adaptations. L-forms proliferate by an unusual membrane deformation and scission process that is independent of the conserved and normally essential FtsZ based division machinery, and which may provide a model for the replication of primitive cells. Candidate gene screening revealed no requirement for the cytoskeletal systems that might actively drive membrane deformation or scission. Instead, we uncovered a crucial role for branched-chain fatty acid (BCFA) synthesis. BCFA-deficient mutants grow and undergo pulsating shape changes, but membrane scission fails, abolishing the separation of progeny cells. The failure in scission is associated with a reduction in membrane fluidity. The results identify a step in L-form proliferation and demonstrate that purely biophysical processes may have been sufficient for proliferation of primitive cells.