The rod shape of most bacteria requires the actin homolog, MreB. Whereas MreB was initially thought to statically define rod shape, recent studies found that MreB dynamically rotates around the cell ...

Work over the past decade has highlighted the pivotal role of the actin-like MreB family of proteins in the determination and maintenance of rod cell shape in bacteria. Early images of MreB ...

Bacterial cell shape is maintained by cell envelope peptidoglycan, which forms a three-dimensional network composed of glycan strands linked by peptide crossbridges. In rod-shaped bacteria, the ...

Executing gene circuits by cell-free transcription–translation into cell-sized compartments, such as liposomes, is one of the major bottom-up approaches to building minimal cells. The dynamic ...

Almost all bacteria owe their structure to an outer cell wall that interacts closely with the supporting MreB protein inside the cell. As scientists now show, MreB molecules assemble into larger units ...

This release is available in German. Almost all bacteria owe their structure to an outer cell wall that interacts closely with the supporting MreB protein inside the cell. As scientists at the Max ...

The helical shape of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) bacteria is essential for its pathogenicity. The Salama lab (Human Biology Division), whose research focuses on these bacteria, demonstrated in the ...

Bacteria are different from you and me. Always the minimalists, they lack features that plant and animal cells usually can’t do without: a nucleus, special organelles, and an internal skeleton made of ...

Even single cells have to maintain their shape: In higher organisms, the supporting structures of the cytoskeleton, which include filament networks made of the protein actin, take care of this job.