ScienceAsia 24 (1998): 141-145 |doi: 10.2306/scienceasia1513-1874.1998.24.141

THE CELL WALL AS A MITOTIC APPARATUS IN BACTERIA

R.J. DOYLE^a AND A.L. KOCH^b

ABSTRACT: This article reviews some of the evidence for a cell wall-DNA association in bacteria and focuses on the role of a polar cell wall in segregating replicating nucleoids in Bacillus subtilis. Evidence for a cell wall-DNA association is derived from genetic studies and from physical-chemical analyses of wall-DNA complexes. The understanding of how DNA-surface complexes function may lead to new kinds of antibiotics and to new ways to define the evolutionary relationships between procaryotic and eucaryotic cells.

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a Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY.40292 (USA) e-mail: rjdoyI01@gwise.louisville.edu
b Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405

Received August 11, 1998