Bacterial roundabouts determine cell shape
Friday, June 3, 2011 - 10:30
in Biology & Nature
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 Planck Institute for Biochemistry and at the French INRA now show, MreB molecules assemble into larger units, but not - as previously believed into continuous helical structures.