Researchers find key to reproduction of bacteria

Bacteria are capable of extremely rapid multiplication. Until now, the question of how individual bacterial cells decide whether to divide has generally been studied using populations that are happily growing. However, what prompts a dormant bacterium to wake up and start dividing has to date not been known.

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) have now conducted a study with the gut bacterium E.coli and found that a single protein in the interior of the bacterial cell decides when cell division will commence – the FtsZ protein. Only when the concentration of this protein rises above a certain threshold will the cell divide.

According to ETH Professor Uwe Sauer, these new insights will not only advance fundamental research, but could also be used in the development of drugs in future. The FtsZ proteinis present not just in E. coli but in almost all species of bacteria, including pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. “If we want to prevent dormant bacteria from beginning to divide, then FtsZ is a good point of attack,” Sauer says. For some years now, various laboratories have been conducting research into substances that accelerate the breakdown of FtsZ, which makes them promising candidates for new antibiotics, ETH reports.